Host Robert Knutzen, defiant as ever, shrugged off his company's financial failings and told guests that the whole project had been a success. He said: "We delivered 11 new double hull VLCCs into a market that desperately needed them and that was our intention." He feels that the present market justifies the whole venture. "We won the argument," he said.
Fred Cheng, founder and former owner of Golden Ocean was not present.
Bocimar's Marc Saverys lamented the lack of a cavalier entrepreneurial spirit in shipping that Fred Cheng and Robert Knutzen's antics in the market represented.
"I feel sorry for Fred and Robert who had this dream," he said. "We need people like them with balls in this industry."
Golden Ocean's demise proved so emotional that it inspired some to a more artistic form of expression.
PR man Jim Lawrence and Marine Money's Matt McCleery showed a new dimension to their literary skills when they composed and read out an amusing poem describing Golden Ocean's tragic flirtation with Wall Street.
There was also a strong Japanese presence showing that there are "no hard feelings" with the yards and trading houses with which Golden Ocean conducted most of its business.
Hitachi Zosen sales general manager M Kai and Kawasaki Heavy Industries' deputy general manager Fumio Ikuzawa both turned up to wish Knutzen good luck in his new venture.
The two companies were among the hardest hit by the collapse of the VLCC project.
Legal eagles Robert E Lustrin and Gary J Wolfe of the New York firm Seward & Kissel --taker of a fair chunk of the $4m in legal bills that the restructuring cost -- also managed to spare a few dollars to fly across the Atlantic and attend the event.
