Global Ocean Race Leg 3 Prize Giving

Held at the Conrad Hotel, Punta del Este, the Global Ocean Race (GOR) Leg 3 Prize Giving was organised by the Yacht Club Punta del Este and the Uruguay Ministry of Tourism. An evening during which the GOR committed to retuning to Punta del Este for the 2013-14 GOR. First award of the evening was the Felipe Cubillos Cape Horn Prize for the first GOR Class40 to round the infamous rock at the eastern limit of the Southern Ocean, named after the late Chilean yachtsman, philanthropist and competitor in the inaugural 2008-09 GOR, Felipe Cubillos Sigall (1962-2011).

The trophy – a replica of the steel albatross statue by the Chilean sculptor, José Balcells, located on Horn Island – was presented by Luis Escobar and a team from Cofradía Náutica del Pacífico yacht club and the Desafío Levantemos Chile (Rise up Chile) charity of which Felipe Cubillos was an integral part. Felipe’s co-skipper in the 2008-09 GOR on Class40 Desafio Cabo de Hornos, José Muñoz, and his son, Felipe Cubillos Toro, presented the prizes. Having led the GOR fleet around Cape Horn after 24 days of racing through the Pacific with Cessna Citation, Conrad Colman accepted the award with Mark Blomfield standing in for Colman’s Leg 3 co-skipper, Adrian Kuttel.

Colman and Blomfield returned to the stage to collect two Luminox Colormark Watches for the bluQube 24-hour Run Prize having hit the highest average speed in Leg 3 with Cessna Citation at 296.4nm over 24, although this speed falls short of Colman’s Leg 2 24-hour run of 359nm.

More Luminox watches were awarded with South African skipper, Nick Leggatt, receiving an exclusive Luminox Yachting Countdown Timer for winning the Luminox Cape Horn Photo Competition with a vertigo-inducing masthead shot on board Phesheya-Racing. Leggatt and his co-skipper, Phillippa Hutton-Squire, returned to the stage to collect the Cape Horn Navigation Prize awarded to the team submitting the most accurate Cape Horn ETA when 1,000 miles west of the cape. Predicting their ETA to within two minutes, Leggatt and Hutton-Squire won membership to the Royal Institute of Navigation in Kensington, London, and the duo will be presented with trophies by GOR Race Committee member, Alan Green, at the Leg 5 prize giving in Les Sables d’Olonne, France.

A second Luminox Yachting Countdown Timer was presented to Dutch skipper, Nico Budel, who won the Luminox Spirit of the GOR Award for his determination to re-join the GOR following dismasting on his Class40 Sec. Hayai early in Leg 2 off Cape Town. The unstoppable 72-year-old will compete in GOR Legs 4 & 5 with fellow Dutchman, Erik van Vuuren, on his immaculately prepared Akilaria RC1.

Italian-Slovak skipper, Marco Nannini, was on stage to collect the Garmin Navigation Award for his skill and judgement in performing an immaculate hove-to manoeuvre prior to rounding Cape Horn and avoiding boat-breaking conditions in gale force winds in Drake Passage with Class40 Financial Crisis. Nannini accepted a handheld Garmin eTrex 30 GPS unit.

Finally, Conrad Colman returned to the stage for a third time to accept the Seahorse Magazine and www.thedailysail.com Media Prize, for the outstanding quality of the rough-weather video shot in the Southern Ocean and the conspicuous newspaper coverage of his co-skipper, Adrian Kuttel, in South Africa winning a year’s subscription to Seahorse Magazine and www.thedailysail.com.