Georgetown: “It is for us a real pleasure that we could come here and participate in an event such as this…Guyana has so much to offer sailors, and it has been one of the region’s best kept secret for long enough and it is time that other people have the chance to enjoy what is here to offer,” were the words of yachter Davide Matelicani on arriving in Guyana recently.
Guyana is the destination for the first leg of a yachting rally that took off from Trinidad and Tobago and will end in French Guiana. The five vessels participating in this inaugural event, coined the ‘Nereid’s Rally’ this morning anchored outside the Hurakabra Resort on the West Bank of the Essequibo River.
They were warmly welcomed and treated to a luncheon by Director, Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) Indranauth Haralsingh and the other organisers of the event including Kit Nascimento, owner of the resort, and representatives of the Ministry of Tourism, the Coast Guard, Maritime Administration department (MARAD), the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), the Guyana Police Force (GPF), and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
This is the first yachting rally to come to Guyana and the ministry is seeking to make this an annual event. The hope is that the credit from these inaugural participants, as well as Guyana’s standing as a safe haven for yachts will help the event gain momentum.
“It is indeed the inaugural rally, it will also be an annual rally…we know it is a small start, but nevertheless significant. These rallies take time to build and gain momentum… we know that this can only grow from here, and with positive work, with your satisfaction, your experience here, basically will help to spread the word of Guyana as a safe haven for yachts,” Harlasingh said.
Guyana is further south of Trinidad and Tobago, which literally makes it a safe sanctuary for yachts, since it is out of the hurricane zone.
The GTA Director also praised the participants for choosing to make Guyana part of the leg of the journey.
“Yachting here is a fledging industry, it is a niche market as well, and whilst we may not have the facilities like elsewhere in the Caribbean, I must tell you that numerous investment opportunities are available here and the Government of Guyana is committed to working with investors and entrepreneurs to develop this sector that has so much potential,” Haralsingh said.
“For those of you who have braved and made this adventurous trip to Guyana, this will be out there and will be further encouragement for the others to come. I am sure that the next time around we will have a much larger rally,” he said.
The participants will spend a few days in Guyana, before the rally moves on to its final leg in French Guiana, and the GTA Director expressed hope that they “will be able to travel and experience and enjoy other attractions we have.”
One of the participants, Matelicani was key to getting all the others involved in the exercise, and he was also congratulated by the GTA Director for taking the leadership in organising the event.
This inaugural rally is in fact nine years in the making. Nascimento explained that the first venture in this regard can actually be considered a yachting flotilla. He said then Bartica was not a port of entry, and the two yachts that participated in the exercise, in order to check into port Guyana had to hire a shipping agent, the boat had to be regarded as a steamship, and they had to fill out a report.
“That was the beginning of what is taking place here today and we have come a long way since then, we have changed the rules, we have changed the regulations,” Nascimento said.
He explained that already because of the rally there were two other yachts that had anchored outside of the resort, “so the rally is already promoted here as a safe anchorage and safe haven,” he said.
Nascimento also expressed hope that Matelicani would build the first marina in Guyana. He said that Guyana needs people like him to help build a yachting industry and a marina that would eventually develop into a boating yard.
“Yachts that come here on visits of this type will come for short periods of time…but they need maintenance, spare parts, and facilities. We would not build this into a thriving industry unless we have a boat yard…we need to have support facilities if we want yachts to be coming on a regular basis,” he said.
“It is for us a real pleasure that we could come here and participate in an event such as this…Guyana has so much to offer sailors, and it has been one of the region’s best kept secret for long enough and it is time that other people have the chance to enjoy what is here to offer,” Matelicani said.
He explained also that the name of the rally came about because in the industry there is a bit of a myth that it is not possible to sail against the currents south of the Caribbean from South America. “…the whole idea behind it was to create a mythical team event to dispel current sailing myths, to dispel the myth that it is not possible to come down to SA from the Caribbean.”
Matelicani is sailing the smallest boat in the rally. Among the other four boats is Lion King, a 53-foot light blue yacht which is captained by Harry van Leekue, who, along with his wife has been sailing across Europe for almost three years, and covered 15,000 nautical miles.
The participants also include Bob and Christine Mette in the Virginia Dare, a 40- foot boat that was built in Sweden. According to Bob, the couple sailed from USA and has been in the Caribbean since last November and plan on staying here until May, next year. Bob and Christine have sailed approximately 10,000 miles in the last two years.
Minister of Tourism (ag) Irfaan Ali is expected to overnight at the Hurakabra Resort on Saturday, September 14, so as to spend time with the visitors and tell them about Government’s commitment and plan to develop the sector. The Region Seven Administration is also expected to take the visitors on tour of Bartica.
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