Guyana was first featured in the Doyle Cruising Guide for the Caribbean in its 3rd edition in 2006 as a potential destination for cruising yachts. The Doyle Guide is the bible for yachts cruising the Caribbean.
In 2006, Chris Doyle, the author of the Guide, accompanied by Donald Stollmeyer, son of the famous West Indies cricket captain Jeff Stollmeyer, and owner of a major boatyard in Trinidad and Tobago and renowned yachtsman Simon Wall, were encouraged to come to Guyana by Kit Nascimento to advise on how to develop Guyana and, in particular the Essequibo River, as a yachting destination. The visit had the full support of the government, which as Doyle wrote in the introduction to the Guide on Guyana, was “keen to see yachting develop and …wanted to get Guyana on the yachting map.”
Two years before, in 2004, Nascimento, along with David and Joyce Davis who had been sailing the Caribbean for a number of years, with the support of Nicole Correia of Evergreen Adventures and with the full encouragement of then minister of tourism Manzoor Nadir, organized a four-yacht flotilla to visit Bartica.
David Davis and Nascimento knew each other as members of the International Broadcasting Institute. He and his wife were looking for somewhere to settle at the end of their sailing days and chose the Essequibo River.
Wall had first sailed to Guyana in 1969 and helped compile the Doyle Guide feature on Guyana, including plotting the navigational waypoints from the entry to the Essequibo up river to Bartica.
When the first flotilla arrived in Guyana it had to clear Customs and Immigration under the regulations governing international shipping. This involved hiring a shipping agent and filling out extensive and complicated forms at significant cost, totally unsuitable for cruising yachts. In 2005, Cabinet approved new procedures on the recommendation of Nadir with a single Customs declaration form being created and the necessary changes to the Customs, Immigration and Health regulations, making the clearance of cruising yachts amongst the simplest in the Caribbean. Cabinet also designated Bartica as an official Port of Entry to accommodate the clearance of cruising yachts.
The launching of Guyana as a yachting destination had begun.
In 2005 a second flotilla, this time some 10 yachts, sailed from Trinidad and Tobago, organized from a visit to Chaguaramas by the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) and Kit Nascimento, with the support of David and Joyce Davis.
In 2011, David Matelicani, an Italian who had retired from business in Australia, sought refuge in the Essequibo from a storm off Venezuela and met Nascimento at his Hurakabra River Resort. Matelicani, at the time, was investing in a marina in Saint Laurent du Maroni in French Guiana. Matelicani decided that there was huge potential for developing a yachting industry in Guyana in the Essequibo River and indicated his interest in also investing in a boatyard in Guyana. He has since presented an investment proposal for a boatyard to the Minister of Tourism.
With the full support and encouragement of the Ministry of Tourism of Guyana, the Mayor of Saint Laurent Leon Bertrand, President of the Tourism Association of Saint Laurent Sophie Charles and the Yachting Services of Trinidad & Tobago (YSOTT), the first Nereid’s Rally was launched in 2013, from Chaguaramas in Trinidad, arriving in Guyana in September, sailing on to Suriname and concluding in Saint Laurent in October, featuring some 9 yachts.
The Nereid’s Rally was held again in 2014, when Kit Nascimento, then president of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG), and his wife Gem, were guests of honour of the Mayor of Saint Laurent at the conclusion of the rally. On that occasion, an Association was formed to further the collaboration and future development of the Nereid’s Rally and tourism between French Guiana and Guyana.
This year, the third Nereid’s Rally was hosted at a lunch by Minister of Tourism Catherine Hughes, at Hurakabra River Resort in the Essequibo with some 10 yachts participating directly in the Rally and 12 more yachts visiting at the time of the Rally. On this occasion, an official delegation from Saint Laurent, headed by Bernard Brieu, Vice President of the Western Town Community of French Guiana, were guests at the luncheon.
Hughes and her husband Nigel Hughes and the Nascimentos were guests of honour of the Sous Prefet Von Dinh and Mayor of Saint Laurent at the conclusion of the Rally last Saturday.
The minister was hosted at a reception at the Tourism Office of Saint Laurent, and later at a dinner hosted by the Sous Prefet and Mayor Saint Laurent. At the reception for the conclusion of the Rally on du Maroni waterfront, she delivered the feature address.
The minister extolled the possibility of small countries like French Guiana, Suriname and Guyana supporting and collaborating in the growth of their tourism industries. She noted that the development of a yachting industry between the three countries of the Guyana Shield provides tremendous opportunity for tourists to cross our borders and share our cultures and our tourist attractions.
