The WARC has a number for prizes for each leg including:
1st, 2nd,3rd for each class of boat
accurately estimating your finish time
a fun prize - this time guessing the total age of all crews crossing the start line
We weren’t mentioned in the ETA competition results,which was a shame because we thought we were only 10 mins off and the winner was over an hour off! We was robbed... but felt it would be churlish to complain so we took the honour quietly ourselves instead.
Next, the total age competition. The answer was 5000 and we were runners up with our guess of 4986. Yay!
Then after the position results ( you’ve guessed it, no prizes for Tintin there) Hans and Astrid from Zwerver took the floor. They are leaving the ARC as they sail direct to the Marquesas next, and they wanted to thank the yellow shirts and say goodbye. They had also got together with George and Bobby on Cabana to work out a fitting goodbye to the fleet, and to do this they decided to award a perpetual trophy, like you have in other sporting events. It is to be awarded at the end of each leg by the previous winner to the most deserving boat, overcoming adversity or being heroic or really any reason you care to invent.
They produced a smart blue blazer with “ Good luck jacket” embroidered on the top pocket. The shortlist was Aurora B for the steering problem, Hope for their engine troubles, and Tintin for Richards injury and the anti fouling debacle.
And the winner was.....
Tintin!
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| a little tight across the shoulders.... |
We are honoured to be the first recipients of this, and will give careful consideration to how, and to whom we pass it on in the Galapagos.
Incidentally, it was really sad that 'Hope' a Hylas 49 with a a lovely US couple on-board, have had to retire from the ARC. They have had water in their oil of their engine for a few weeks now and thought they had fixed it while in Shelter Bay. However, the problem has returned and the diagnosis is a cracked engine block - which is about as terminal for an engine as it's possible to get. So they remain in Panama, downhearted, while the caravan moves on....