216 boats at the start of the ARC

This incredible Atlantic Rally for Cruisers has been so successful since its creation 31 years ago, that due to lack of space in Las Palmas marina, the organizers have had to arrange for two different events. In the first, the ARC+, the 71 participants (as against 54 last year), including 13 multihulls, left Las Palmas on 6^th November, heading for Mindelo in the Cape Verde islands, and from there set off again for St. Lucia on 16^th November. As for the ‘classic’ ARC, it brought together 216 boats of 31 different nationalities, divided into several categories. The 35 out-and-out racers weren’t allowed to use the engine. The others – almost 160 monohulls and 29 multihulls (20 last year...), including a ketch-rigged trimaran, Juniper– were. The most represented builder was Lagoon, with 16 boats. There were also some Fountaine-Pajots, Catanas, Leopards... We also noticed a superb 24-meter Allegra, designed by Nigel Irens, an impressive Nautitech 542 and a very tough-looking Garcia SC48. A clever formula nevertheless allows the ‘cruisers’, who are obliged to communicate their daily engine hours, to be classified - and no cheating, please!

As it was a ‘race’, here are the results of the ARC: in Class A, the Outremer 5X ‘Nemo’ won, ahead of the Catana 531 ‘Agalina’ and the Lagoon 620 ‘Ludanka’. In Class B, victory went to the Leopard 48 ‘Jolly Dacha’, ahead of the Garcia 48 ‘Hanna’ and our friends in the Lagoon 42 ‘Merci Papa’.

All the results on: www.worldcruising.com