Cruising
CASE STUDY
SKIPPER: BRIAN ALDERSON
STARLIGHT 39 RHUMB
One of the oldest crews on one of the
oldest boats, the 26-year-old Starlight
39 yacht Rhumb (GBR) was originally
due to sail with ARC 2014 but forced
to withdraw after 350 miles. Skipper
Brian Alderson, 67, who has sailed
the ARC twice before, says: ‘Last year
our skipper and friend David Barber
became ill, and we also had a
problem with our steering.’
In an earlier ARC crossing, Ian and
Brian had experienced steering failure
and the ARC team brought a boat
within one mile, for visible support.
Brian added: ‘The ARC is really good
value for money. Our entry fee was
about £1,000 for the boat and £125
per head for the crew. It makes
sailing the Atlantic that much more reassuring for a crew of four.’
Sailing with Brian were school friends John Underwood, 66, Ian Whitelock, 66, and Tim Gray, 59.
Preparations for the ARC included installing a watermaker, putting a generator and a satellite
communications system on board and fitting a new fridge and freezer.
HELPFUL HINT: Add a sunshade and corner seats on the aft quarter to open up a compact cockpit. Get
an honorary crew member to cook all main meals for the trip and freeze them – thanks, Anne Whitelock!Power on board
ARC participants are allowed
to use their engines, providing
they’re not in the race fleet, but
must record the time spent under
propulsion. While engines in
neutral are useful for charging
batteries, they’re also noisy, and
several sailors this year opted to
try hydrogenerators – essentially
revamped towed generators
which hinge down off the stern
like outboard motors.
Solar panels are also a popular
choice. Wind generators, while
great at anchor, notoriously
underperform in the trade winds
which the ARC is timed to catch,
as with the wind abaft the beam
the apparent wind is low.
Back-ups are vital. Most boats
had more than one power source,
which with modern reliance on
electronics for navigation, lighting
and communications is essential.
Less reassuring was that a lot of
crews had pre-cooked all their
meals, relying on a generator or
engine to protect them. If you opt
to do this, have a back-up plan in
Thirty years ago, the Atlantic
Rally for Cruisers launched
in response to an increasing
number of yachts setting sail
from the Canary Islands, bound
for the Caribbean. The route’s
north-easterly trade winds
stabilise in the winter months,
running from south of the
Canaries to just north of the
Equator and helping even
the slowest boat to complete
the crossing.
The development of the
Transit satellite navigation
system, also known as
NAVSAT or NNSS (Navy
Navigation Satellite
System), boosted
numbers in the1980s by enabling cruisers to
make the 2,700NM crossing
without astronavigation. Today,
GPS fulfils the same function.
PBO’s sister title Yachting World
was instrumental in the inaugural
1985 event, which was inspired
by YW contributor Jimmy Cornell
visiting Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
to conduct a survey of yachts
leaving to go transatlantic.
The inaugural ARC quadrupled
expectations by attracting
204 starters, and the event,
now run by the World
Cruising Club (WCC),
has continued to grow.
After sailing to Barbados
for the first four years,
the rally re-routed toFriends John Underwood, Brian Alderson, Ian Whitelock and
Tim Gray on the Starlight 39 yacht RhumbAndrew Bishop at the ARC 2015 skippers’ briefing at the Hotel Santa Catalina
WCC/James Mitchellcase the fridge or freezer fails.
Power failure will also render
watermakers useless, and past
ARCs have shown that these
units sometimes fail, so complete
reliance on them is inadvisable.
Chris Brooke advises having more
than one tank, and using the
watermaker to refill empty plastic
bottles, rather than topping up a
contaminated tank. ‘The marina
water does have a slight taste,’
he said. ‘You can never be 100%
sure your water tanks are pure.’
Bottled water is cheap in Las
Palmas; r1 will buy around eight
litres, so it’s worth stocking up.the larger marina at Rodney Bay,
St Lucia. It takes an average of
18-21 days to make the crossing
and, upon arrival, all ARC boats
are met with a fruit basket and
rum punch.
Former Yachting World editor
Dick Johnson (left) says the past
three decades have seen great
changes in communication
systems: ‘You only have to look
at how the boats can uploadphotographs to websites while at
sea. Gone are the days when the
majority of the fleet were VHF-
only boats: most are now fitted
with satellite communications.’
A record number of 254 yachts
and more than 1,200 sailors
registered for the 2015 ARC
and for ARC+, which includes
a stopover at Mindelo, on São
Vicente in Cape Verde.
http://www.worldcruising.com/arc30th anniversary ARC