The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) will this year have a record number of yachts participating, with 240 yachts confirmed to take part in this year's transatlantic cruising rally from Gran Canaria to St.Lucia in November, topping the previous maximum of 234 entrants in 1999. The total distance is 2700 nautical miles and most of the yachts will take between 18 and 25 days.

The World Cruising Club, the organisers of the ARC, is currently making final arrangements for the departure of the 2007 ARC fleet from Las Palmas on Sunday 25 November just over a month away. The Las Palmas Port Authority have made substantial improvements to their marina in the heart of the city of Las Palmas, which means that more yachts than ever before can now be accommodated. This year all yachts will have their own pontoon marina berth, essential whilst crews prepare the yachts for their Atlantic crossing.

The new owners of Rodney Bay Marina in St. Lucia, the destination for the ARC, have plans to make improvements to the marina which will involve adding more and larger pontoon berths and dredging the marina to give greater depth for larger yachts. It is planned to start this work in early February to be certain of being complete in time for the 2008 ARC.

Some of the yachts will have come down to Portugal in ‘Rally Portugal’ also organised by the World Cruising Club. This year there were a total of 21 yachts in Rally Portugal who left Plymouth on June 2nd and arrived at Lagos on June 26th with stops at Bayona, Povoa de Varzim, Figeira da Foz, Peniche, Oeiras and Sines.

This year will be the 22nd ARC, it has always been an international event and 2007 is no exception There will be 24 different nations represented within the fleet, making the ARC the World's largest transocean sailing event. This years ARC has a wide range of sizes of yachts the largest being the Ed Dubois-designed Mariposa at 29m (95ft). 43 of the yachts in this years ARC are Beneteau, 20 of them Jeanneau. There will also be a number of Halberg Rassys, Oysters, Hanse, Amels, Swans, Moodys, Nicholsons, Bavarias and many others plus a total of 21 Catamarans.

The ARC was designed originally as a cruising rally for cruising yachts to make the Atlantic crossing both safer and more enjoyable, since it's inception it has for some of the entrants become more of a race than a cruise. 28 yachts in the fleet will be racing under the auspices of The Royal Ocean Racing Club, this year two Volvo 60's - AAG Big One and Pindar, both with Russian crews will be racing as a warm up for their Volvo Ocean Race campaigns. The Australian maxi Loki skippered by Stephen Ainsworth will be hoping to beat the ARC course record and the two Volvo 60s.

The crews consist of more than 1000 men and women of all ages, the World Cruising Club organise a wide variety of functions both at the start and finish of the rally. Not least the prize giving ceremony at St Lucia, which involves prizes not just for the first to get to the finish line in each class, but also for many other things too.

Sailing across the Atlantic used to be an experience totally devoid of any contact with the rest of the world. Much has changed, and in the ARC it is now a requirement for each yacht to have an HF radio with a capability of being able to talk to people 1000s of miles away or a satellite telephone. Plus a lot of the yachts will subscribe to 'Sailmail' which enables them to connect their lap top to their radio and send and receive emails to friends and relations. The rally organisers also organise daily radio nets so yachts can keep in touch with each other, which adds to the competitive atmosphere and contributes enormously to the safety of the participants. They must also have a life-raft and an 'Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon' (EPIRB) as well as other safety equipment.

The smallest boat and the youngest skipper

The smallest entry this year has been berthed at Lagos for the past six weeks having been sailed down from England and is the 7.60m (26ft) Folkboat - Ariel sailed by her owner the youngest skipper in this years ARC, Henry Adams aged 23 from Sherborne, Dorset. Henry will have one crew Tim Fosh also just 23 who will join Henry from England just before they leave. If you were to add their two ages together the total of 46 is probably less than the average age of all the other skippers in the ARC.

Henry and Tim were at school together and so have been friends for a long time and so neither will mind the fact that there is no loo on board, just a bucket. Henry’s view is that a loo and inboard engine take up too much valuable space. Ariel has no inboard engine just a 4 HP Mariner outboard fitted to a bracket bolted on to her transom. Ariel is a design that I have always liked, she has a full length keel, is heavy displacement, narrow in her beam and sails beautifully. Whilst I know that Henry will look after her, she will also look after him. There are many other much bigger, faster and more expensive boats in the ARC but given the choice I would choose to sail in Henry's Folk Boat, he certainly won't be the quickest but without doubt she will give him the nicest sail and out of all the Skippers in this years ARC the most amount of satisfaction when he steps ashore in St Lucia. The ARC record set last year of 11 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 30 seconds is a bit quicker than the 23 days that Henry expects to take.

Henry's progress and the progress of the entire fleet can be followed on line by going to www.worldcruising.com/arc/ or if you would just like to read about Henry’s progress go to his blog which is: blog.mailasail.com/yacht_ariel Henry’s choice for his communication is a satellite telephone which when connected to his laptop he can email the ARC organisers with his position everyday, plus exchange emails with friends and keep his blog up to date.

Henry has prepared himself well for this adventure by completing the RYA Coastal Skipper / Yachtmaster theory course, a VHF radio operators course, a sea survival course, 1st aid and finally instruction from Rob Clark of RU Sailing (www.rusailing.com) by way of preparation for his Atlantic crossing and the RYA Yachtmaster Exam.

The Yachtmaster Exam

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to sail Ariel with Henry on October 11th from Lagos marina. Henry was taking the RYA Yachtmaster Exam with me and I am very happy to be able to say that he passed. I judged him to be an excellent and very competent skipper and had a very enjoyable day sailing with him. Henry’s crew for the day of the exam was Pascale Bastien who can be seen in the photograph above steering Ariel with Henry sitting beside her. Pascale is living near Lagos, has recently completed the RYA Day Skipper sailing course and is keen to get more crewing experience.

ON BOARD ARIEL ACROSS THE POND WITH HENRY & TIM

Who are sailing across the Atlantic in a 26 ft boat to raise money for the Samantha Dickson trust www.justgiving.com/timothyfosh which funds research into brain tumours and offers support to the families of those affected. A friend of theirs at school died of this condition.

We arrived in Porto Santo yesterday after 4 days' lovely sailing with warm, light winds behind us all the way. Experimented with 4 hour night watches which didn't work, so back to 3hrs on, 3hrs off which is actually a pretty good routine. Broke the gooseneck (which connects the boom to the mast) - so took the main sail down for the last couple of days, but we made good progress anyway.
About 10 minutes after I went below after my last dawn watch Foshy (Tim) saw the jagged peaks of Madiera ahead - amazing to see nothing, barely even any ships, for 4 days, and then have an island pop up right in front of us.
Been eating pasta mostly on board, still wondering whether we'll work out how to bake bread at sea when my pressure cooker gets all of its parts back. The crew seems to doubt me in this matter...he will be proven wrong in due course... Porto Santo is absolutely amazing! We are in a marina at one end of a five mile long golden beach, with crystal clear water and big blue skies. The forecast is for more light northerly winds - perfect for our sail down to Las Palmas.

December 4th Position 19:27N, 30:58W

Here we are 1000 miles in and rather committed to this whole venture it would now seem. We've had a good couple of days distance-wise, which is always likely to increase spirits, and I have now guestimated that we should be into Rodney Bay Marina in a mere 15 days or so.
We opened our 1000 mile care package from Henry's mum today (2000 mile package from my mum to follow - a lot to live up to) and found all sorts of goodies enclosed. Quite apart from all the sweets, there was a little bottle of champagne, countless biscuits and cakes, puzzle books and even a mini bottle of champagne! Most exciting though were the mini sparklers (coming out later) and the advent calendar, to get us into the Christmas spirit.
We have officially been in the tropics for about 4 days and have been enjoying the rather un-Christmasy temperatures - hope it's this warm back home.
Are expecting some rather strong winds (up to force 6) in the next couple of days, so we'll try and break the 140-miles-in-a-day mark, under just a double-reefed main - bring it on. Our first attempt at fishing we caught a 12 pound Dorado after 3 minutes, No further fish despite an entire afternoon dedicated to that pursuit, but a flying fish did land on deck last night. Not much more as power at a premium and need to get some detailed weather, but will try to update soon and love to all until that time. Tim.

Ariel, Henry and Tim have arrived!

Ariel, Henry & Tim

Henry and Tim have arrived!  They crossed the finish line late on Sunday evening December 16th (A little less than an excellent 22 days for their crossing).  They were welcomed into Rodney Bay by other double handers from Hippopotamus who went out to the finish line in a water taxi and a crowd of well wishers were waiting as they came into the marina having let a flare off to light the berth.

They tied up to respectful applause as Ariel looked tiny next to other ARC boats on B dock. Sitting in Scuttlebutts bar with a Piton beer shortly after tying up Henry and Tim described the crossing as “Straightforward” adding “we missed all the thunderstorms, we just let them get ahead of us.

We had a fantastic welcome when we finally reached our designated berth - boats on all side with cockpits full of people standing and applauding us, conches, car horns and foghorns being blown, as well as a flare being let off and about 70 people actually on the dock to come and shake our hands. Cold rum punches and beer were quite possibly the things we were most glad to see”.