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News [email protected] US OU S OEmail news edi S 5 tYtaking part in ARC 2015 set sail from Gran Canaria on 22 November, bound for ears and months of intense planning and preparation fioff when the yachts nally paid
the Caribbean.currently mid-Atlantic on a 2,700NM journey to Rodney More than 1,200 sailors are
Bay, St Lucia that for many of them represents the voyage of a lifetime.While 195 yachts from 27
nations make up the ARC flsailing direct from Las Palmas to Saint Lucia, another 59 yachts set sail a fortnight eet,
earlier on the ARC+ rally, which includes a stop at Mindelo, on São Vicente in the Cape Verdes.
254 yachts represents a The combined total ofrecord number in the 30-year history of the rally.Dick Johnson (below) recalled Former Yachting World editor
the success of the original ARC, when they were expecting 50 boats to participate and ended up with 204 starters.
changed: we used to see some really rough old boats, and we did stop some from taking part.’ One He said: ‘The boats have
of the most memorable entries, he said, was a ‘lovely couple with two children aged fia Nicholson 32 Mk 1 yacht. He ve and three, with
had been a fiand she was a nurse.’ARC, with one crew with They set sail on the second reman in Portsmouth
them, and halfway across the Atlantic their batteries went flthe engine to recharge at. They couldn’t start
them so they lost all electricity. Dicksaid: ‘They had a bicycle on board, so they took the saloon table out and lashed the bicycle to the saloon table with the back
tyre off the ground. They got an alternator off the engine and wires to extend back to the battery.‘They wrapped the alternator in
carrier bags and for three days they pedalled, holding the alternator onto the bike until they charged the batteries up enough
to start the engine.’Smallest and oldestThis year, the smallest boat in
the flcalled sailors Enno and Karin Rodegerdts who are taking a year eet is a Hallberg-Rassy 310 Inua, owned by German
off from their work in the medical sector. Second-smallest and ‘defiContessa 32 yacht nitely the oldest’ entry is the Pisces, owned
by Brit Paul Thompson who is sailing with David Everett fromAdelaide, Australia. The duo have a lot of catching up to do as they last sailed together in 1978, when they met travelling and ended up
covering more than 10,000 miles.separate ways. Now we’re getting together to do the ARC and revisit Paul said: ‘We went our
an old thing, see if we can do it and have a bit of fun.’as a paramedic and her partner Terysa Vanderloo quit her job
Nick Fabri sold his dental practice and bought a Southerly 38 yacht specifiARC, and then to carry on cally to do the
with a circumnavigation.excited, nervous, going through abject terror. It’s exciting, but it’s Terysa said: ‘We’ve been
the fear of the unknown. The most we’ve done before is three days offshore, but someone once told me if you can cruise the English
Channel you can cross the Atlantic, so I’m holding onto that.and even if it’s horrifi‘I’m excited, I’m ready to go, c we’ve got
the Caribbean to look forward to.’electric yacht without any diesel on board, having fiJanne Kjellman is sailing a fully tted his
Maestro 40 yacht, his company’s Oceanvolt’s SD8.6 saildrive electric motor system.Meteorologist Chris Tibbs, who Limone, with
took on the inaugural ARC and is participating again this year, said: ‘The boats have got bigger and faster, communications have
changed and so has navigation, but the wind and the waves are still the same.’World Cruising Club managing
director Andrew Bishop said the ARC was about ‘achieving dreams’, and added: ‘When you talk to people at the end of this
event you realise what an impact it’s had on them.’18-21 days to make the crossing, The majority of boats will take
arriving in Rodney Bay Marina from 10 December. Whatever time they make landfall, every boat will be met at the dock
by Saint Lucia Tourism Board and World Cruising Club staff bearing a welcome rum punch and cold drinks.
Tracking satellite trackers, which can be followed online at http://www.worldcruising.com/arc.All ARC boats are fi tted with YBThe 30th Atlantic Rally
for Cruisers is under way‘Boats have got bigger and faster, communications have changed
and so has navigation, but the wind and the waves are still the same’Tim Scarisbrick, powers through the waves as The start of the 30th ARC, with the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the background. Arthur Logic, the charter boat skippered by
she heads for the start in Las Palmas© WCC James Mitchell