Sail For Gold Ball at The London Hilton, Park Lane

More than 850 guests showed their support to the 22 Olympic and Paralympic team sailors who will compete in Weymouth and Portland this summer and Britain’s up-and-coming Olympic stars of tomorrow by packing out the London Hilton on Park Lane.

In the presence of HRH The Princess Royal, President of the RYA, the guests, including some of the biggest names in sailing from the past and present as well as many from the worlds of commerce, politics, the arts and media, were treated to a feast of entertainment as the Ball once again raised significant funds to help support the development of World Class sailing in Britain.

Introduced by the BBC team for the 2012 sailing events, including double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson and Olympic silver medallist Mark Covell, the fundraising effort offered a fantastic array of raffle prizes while the Sail for Gold auction, with master auctioneer Nick Bonham, was a massive success. Once again reputed sports artist Brian West’s exclusive Sailing for Gold painting attracted many bids, as did the pieces which were hand painted and signed by past and present Olympians.