The Newport-Bermuda Race festivities concluded on a Royal weekend of proud skippers and multiple trophies.

Princess Anne ? a sailing fanatic herself and president of the Royal Yachting Association ? toured a number of the winning vessels at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club on Saturday afternoon before giving out the major prizes at an evening ceremony at Government House.

The biggest cheers of the evening came when skipper Eleonara de Haas from St. Maarten came up to receive her prize for the best corrected time in the Cruising Division, the first all-women crew to win a major award in the event.

There was also loud applause when local skipper Colin Couper collected his three prizes won by

Under both ORR and IRC scoring systems won the first Bermuda yacht on corrected time, an award that Couper received from the Princess Royal.

He also picked up, under IRC, the award for ?First Bermuda yacht which beats the second Bermuda yacht by the largest margin in her division?, this time from Sir John Vereker, a member of Couper?s crew.

?It was fantastic to receive the first Bermuda boat award in both categories,? said Couper, who has been racing in the Newport Race since he was a teenager.

?It was an honour to receive the award from the Princess Royal, she really does know her sailing and I think it?s wonderful that she was here to give out the prizes.

?I think I have won this a couple of times before but it is especially nice to win it in the centennial race, particularly because it was such a long crossing.

?I must admit I hadn?t even heard of the other award, I thought it was a made-up one at first. And it was nice to receive it from Sir John. Despite what he says, he is an important part of our crew and a real pleasure to have on board.

?He is a very good helmsman and he is welcome to sail with us again.?

David Roblin?s collected the equivalent trophy under ORR scoring.

Well over 50 prizes were handed out on the night, from the line honours trophy for Hap Fauth?s through the Gibbs? Hill Lighthouse Trophy for andSt. David?s Lighthouse Trophy for to the Galley Slave Trophy for the cook on the last yacht to finish, Edwin Messinger on

Earlier in the day, the Princess had inspected the resplendent vessels at the RBYC, speaking to representatives from ten of the winning boats.

Clearly interested in what the smartly-dressed sailors had to say, the Princess spent a good ten minutes aboard marvelling at the technological wizardry aboard the $8 million 98-ft boat and was also reunited with Dee Caffari, the first woman to sail solo around the world the wrong way, whom she had congratulated back in England at the end of her 178-day journey earlier this year.

A number of the boats had already departed Bermuda before the hour-long royal inspection and many others left across the remainder of the weekend, putting an end to the centennial celebrations and the largest sports tourism event in the Island?s history.