At the post event party held on Saturday 20th June at the Waterfront restaurant rally organiser Boatshed Gibraltar announced that the rally had raised nearly £7000 for the Red Cross. A cheque will soon be presented to the Red Cross. This more that triples the amount raised last year, the first year that the current organising committee took on leadership of the rally.

John Alcantara thanked the participants, organising committee, headline sponsors Ocean Village and Boatshed Gibraltar and main sponsors Gibraltar Port Authority, Eroski supermarket, GibOil, Sovereign Insurance , Hire U Shop and Algeciras based Isla Verde yacht repair yard for their generous support. Another 20 sponsors enabled the organising committee to source prizes many of which were auctioned or raffled to raise funds for the charity. The event represents the ecosystem of the Gibraltar yachting fraternity. Alcantara highlighted how it is possible with good planning, marketing and support to raise sizeable funds for charity AND have a fabulous weekend of sailing and social activities. This year saw an increase of over 30% in the number of yachts taking part with well over a third being non-locally based boats.

This year’s participants enjoyed near perfect sailing conditions, although, maybe, a little challenging for some of the smaller boats. All the boats reported seeing friendly dolphins with some schools having well over a hundred members. Two yachts returning on the Sunday afternoon were treated to the rare spectacle of a pod of Fin Whales just East of Gibraltar.

Next year’s rally is pencilled for the weekend of the 8th July. New potential participants should contact Boatshed Gibraltar or “like” Facebook.com/boatshedgib to receive updates on next year’s event into their Facebook timelines.