Last night’s prizing giving dinner was a gala event hosted by Marina Santa Marta held in the main dining room of the prestigious Club Santa Marta. Local dignitaries in attendance included Colombian Vice Minister for Tourism, Sandra Howard, CEO of Santa Marta Marina, Dr Manuel Davila, President of Santa Marta Club, Senora Carmen David along with His Excellency the British Ambassador to Colombia, Lindsay Croisdale-Appleby.
On arrival participants gathered in the vast and glamorous main reception room enjoying a selection of Colombia’s famous frozen fruit juice cocktails. The Cocktails were served “virgin” before a generous shot of the participants choice of Colombian Rum, Vodka or Gin was added to the glass.
After settling down to the long dining tables in the room all participants enjoyed a welcome from the Vice Minister for Tourism, Sandra Howard who thanked the fleet for visiting Colombia, wished them well on their future adventures and issued a very kind invitation to return to Colombia in the future. This was further endorsed by Manuel Davila, CEO of Santa Marta Marina, who has been delighted to host the World ARC fleet.
Following the speeches it was time for the prize giving ceremony during which prizes of Champagne and Baskets of Colombian Coffee were awarded with the assistance of Sandra Howard and Manuel Davila. 1st Prize in the Cruising Division, along with a prize for line honours was awarded to the UK flagged yacht, Juno of London who finished the course in a corrected time of 4 days 9 hours. Second place was awarded to Swedish yacht Ayama and a very close 3rd place to UK yacht Pentogram. In the Multihull Division 1st place was awarded to Australian catamaran Aquilon III.
World Cruising Club would like to warmly thank our hosts and sponsors of World ARC in Santa Marta including, ProColombia, Fontor, OPE, Government of Colombia and Marina Santa Marta all of whom have contributed to making this inaugural stopover in Santa Marta such an overwhelming success.