PH Film Project Picked for Switzerland Film Co-Production Program

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Film director Petersen Vargas’ second feature project “Some Nights I Feel Like Walking” has been selected for this year's Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors Hub program in Switzerland.

Established 17 years ago, the Open Doors Hub Program is Locarno Film Festival’s industry sidebar. Directors and producers with projects chosen for the program will be mentored and will have the opportunity to network with potential international distributors and partners. This year, the co-production platform will present eight (8) promising projects from Southeast Asia for international collaborations.

The Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), the country's film agency, takes pride in the honor brought to the country by Vargas and his team.

“We are focused on encouraging our Philippine filmmakers and talents to go international now more than ever, and Locarno’s Open Doors Hub gives our filmmakers and their projects the platform to make this goal happen. We are very proud of Petersen, and we wish them all the best in looking for potential international collaborators during the program to realize his project into film,” said FDCP Chairperson and CEO Mary Liza Diño.

Vargas’ coming-of-age debut feature “2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten” won best picture at Cinema One Originals Film Festival 2016. “Some Nights I Feel Like Walking” is part of the five (5) projects that are selected for the third edition of the Southeast Asia Fiction (SEAFIC) Film Lab, an intensive script development lab for Southeast Asian filmmakers, making him the Lab’s first Filipino participant.

“Some Nights I Feel Like Walking” is co-produced by Jade Castro and Alemberg Ang. At present, the film project is in the pre-production stage.

In the Director‘s Note, Vargas said, “My second film aims at being a portrait of a nation (and of a city, homeland, people) as seen through its outskirts and shadows. To walk Manila by night is a revelatory peek into Filipino youth on the fringes of society.”

The Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors Hub runs from August 7 to 13, 2019, while the 72nd Locarno Film Festival takes place from August 7 to 17, 2019. It is one of the longest running and most prestigious film festivals in the world that showcases arthouse films.

ELSA’ Facilitates Movement of Empties at Manila South Harbor

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Yard utilization at the Manila South Harbor was trimmed down to a better-than-ideal level with the implementation of the Empty Loadout Shipping Agreement (ELSA) at the port.

The initiative, put forward by South Harbor cargo handling operator Asian Terminals, Inc. (ATI), boosted the Manifesto of Support on efficient port utilization signed in mid-March, as well as PPA Administrative Orders clearing the Manila ports of empty and overstaying containers.

The ELSA process provides that at every cargo discharge, vessels docked at the Manila South Harbor would load empty containers already available at the port regardless which shipping line owned such container. The participating shipping lines to the ELSA process include the CMA-CGM Group, T.S. Lines, Evergreen, Yang Ming Lines, Wan Hai and Hyundai Merchant Marine.

“We laud this initiative of ATI in their desire to free up container yard space at the Manila South Harbor and facilitate the movement of laden boxes to and from the port,” PPA General Manager Jay Daniel R. Santiago said.

“Two weeks from the implementation of the Manifesto, the Manila South Harbor is already loading out at least 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and relocated the same to other Asian destinations,” GM Santiago explained.

“But with ELSA, the container loadout at the port per week has reached 14,000 TEUs, the highest figure posted in the 60-day implementation span of the agreement,” he added.

The Manifesto of Support aims to prevent the imbalance of inbound and outbound containers borne by the unscrupulous practice of using the ports for prolonged storage of their containers until the withdrawal of goods will yield to maximum profit.

Prior to the Manifesto, the previous practice was that the shipping lines would only pull out its own containers, resulting in higher inventory of empties inside the ports’ container yards.

“The consistent loadout of empty and overstaying containers from the ports the past two months have resulted in a yard utilization of about 54% as of end May compared to the 75% yard utilization when the Manifesto was signed in mid-March,” Santiago said.

5 Great Reasons to Buy a Sailing Catamaran

Wazzup Pilipinas!

If you’ve always wanted to have your own leisure boat, you might want to consider acquiring a sailing catamaran. This type of boat, also known as a “cat,” is a multihull vessel that possesses two parallel, bilaterally symmetrical hulls—a characteristic that allows it to have a beam wide enough to be supremely stable on water. Thanks to this and the other advantages that they offer, catamarans are fast becoming a popular choice for sailing enthusiasts in the Philippines.

In fact, catamarans from world-renowned boat builder Lagoon—part of the French yachting conglomerate Groupe Bénéteau—headlined the recently concluded Lagoon Escapade Philippines 2019. Organized by Europa Yachts Philippines, the country’s premier yachting authority, the escapade’s highlight was a sailing rally that saw 11 majestic Lagoon catamarans set sail from Club Punta Fuego in Batangas to Puerto Galera in Mindoro.

If you dream about joining such events in the future, or you simply want a boat that is both luxuriously appointed and highly reliable under sail, then you should really look into getting a catamaran—particularly one made by Lagoon. Here are five reasons why you may want to consider acquiring one for your sailing adventures across the Philippines.

Sailing catamarans tend to be very stable on water

The stability of catamarans make them very forgiving vessels for experienced sailors and their passengers alike. Their multihull design allows them to resist heeling, which—more often than not—translates to a more satisfying cruising experience for those on board.

This stability also makes catamarans pleasant at anchor. Since a lot of boat owners in the Philippines are also keen about hosting gatherings and soirées on board, it makes perfect sense for them to get a boat that won’t easily tilt due to the pressure of wind and water movements, or because of weight distribution issues on board.

Catamarans provide generous deck and saloon spaces

Multihull boats like catamarans tend to have generous deck spaces and expansive main saloons, thanks in no small part to the wide breadth afforded by their unique deck plans that straddle their port hull and their starboard hull.

This means that catamarans—compared to other boats—usually have more room for entertaining guests, lounging around, and experiencing the other unique thrills and joys of sailing. If you’re the type who’s looking for a boat that your family and friends can roam around in more freely and enjoy more fully, then a catamaran may just be your best option.

Catamarans typically afford more options for cabin layouts

One nice perk of many contemporary catamaran designs, such as those produced by Lagoon, is that a boat owner can have more than one option when it comes to the cabin layout. The double hull configuration of the boat typically means there is a lot of space below deck to move the rooms around. Depending on the overall size and design of the boat, you can have anywhere from 3 to 6 cabins within.

Do you want a boat with a huge cabin that can serve as a grand master bedroom just for yourself? You can choose a cat with provisions for a cabin that runs the length of an entire hull. Do you need a kitchen and dining space near your bedroom for those late-night raids to the fridge or those intimate informal dinners with your significant other? You can choose a catamaran that has provisions for a below-deck lateral galley. The sky’s the limit when you choose a catamaran.

Catamarans can be very fuel efficient under the right conditions

There are a lot of factors that come into play when we talk about the fuel economy of boats. For example, sailboats tend to be more fuel-efficient than powerboats because they can use their sails for propulsion and their engines tend to be smaller and less powerful than those of true motorboats.

When it comes to sailing catamarans, fuel efficiency can be achieved thanks to the design of their hulls. Missing the large ballasted keels of other boats, a typical sailing catamaran will have much less wetted surface area, which means that less of its hull is immersed in water. Under serene weather conditions, this can make the catamaran a very fuel efficient vessel because it can move at great speeds without much resistance from the water.

However, you can probably imagine how other sailboats—with hulls designed to cut through the water instead of gliding on it—can be more fuel efficient under rougher weather conditions. A single-hull sailboat with a displacement hull, for example, may present less resistance on bumpy waters, which means it can be more fuel-efficient than the catamaran above, assuming their engines generate an equal amount of horsepower.

In the end, fuel efficiency can be considered on a case by case basis, but the benefits of a sailing catamaran in terms of fuel economy should never be disregarded.

Catamarans are ideal for use both in the high seas and close to shore

Catamarans are excellent cruising vessels that let sailors experience optimum freedom in the high seas, but should you ever desire staying closer to shore, this type of boat will not disappoint. Because they lack the heavy and large keels of other sailboats, sailing catamarans tend to have shallower drafts, which means there is less distance between the waterline and the bottom of their hulls. Since they can avoid grazing the ocean floor, catamarans are able to access more areas closer to shore compared to other boats of similar length.

The advantage for the boat owner and their guests, of course, is that they get to stop on spots that can be considered great locations for near-shore activities such as swimming, snorkeling, kiteboarding, and windsurfing. Given the Philippine coastlines’ extreme combined length and the diversity of marine features and environments that can be surveyed, catamarans are an excellent choice for sailing enthusiasts who also desire to explore the country closer to its shores.

In the end, catamarans and other boats each have their own qualities that make them appeal to different types of boating aficionados. It’s hard, if not impossible, to recommend a boat based solely on its hull design, so each model should be evaluated on its own merits.

Get in touch with Europa Yachts Philippines to find out whether a catamaran might be a great fit for your requirements. Europa Yachts Philippines offers a curated selection of boats from Lagoon and other celebrated boat makers from Europe. Contact them today at info@europayachts.net, or call (+632) 553-2027.