Paraw Regatta aims to become biggest boat race in Asia
Beach master Jose Piamonte wants to make the Iloilo Paraw Regatta competition become the biggest boat race is Asia. They are expecting some 50-60 participants in the sailboat competition slated on February 18-19, 2006.
Piamonte said in previous years participants in the competition reached to 120 entries. The Iloilo Paraw Regatta Foundation Incorporated (IPRFI) wants to encourage more participants and spectators this year. There are already 22 participants who have registered to join in category A and nine for category B.
The competition will cover the 36.5 kilometer-race route from Tatoy's Manokan to Fort San Pedro. From Fort San Pedro, the paraws will head to Sto. Rosario in Buenavista, Guimaras. From Sto. Rosario, it will proceed to Puting Balas straight to Morobuan in Jordan and back to the finish line at Villa Beach.
He said they expect that the number of participants will increase as the day of the competition draws nearer. Before, there were participants who only registered on the day of the competition. They came as far as Leyte and Boracay.
There are foreign nationals who have already expressed their interest to join in the competition aside from the locals. One of those is Jonathan Grant. In previous paraw competitions, the participants from Bacolod and island-province of Guimaras dominated the race.
Piamonte added they scrapped category C in the competition. In category C, paraws have the length of 22 feet up. This year, there will only be two categories, A and B. Paraws in the category A are less than 16 feet in length while sailboat in category B measured 16 feet and below 22 feet.
Piamonte said category C was stricken by the organizers after the crews complained that they find it hard to look for bamboo poles which fits and could help the crews to maneuver their paraws. Bigger paraws need bigger bamboo poles.
Other than the paraw competition itself, the organizer has lined up several special events to add color and more attraction to the yearly paraw competition such as beach volleyball, pinta tawo and food festival near the beachside.
As to date, there are six volleyball teams who will join in the beach volleyball. The games will start on February 18 until Sunday. The champion team will receive a cash prize of P4,000; P3,000 second prize; P1,000 third prize and P500 for the consolation prizes.