ARC starts today

tri39

tri39

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Las Palmas empties today of ARCs, no doubt to be refilled by NARCs.
Be interested to here from either, esp w details of radio nets official or unoficial.
 
Sat in Las Palmas at the moment doing a few repairs before we head off on our Atlantic trip.

We would like to wish all the folks on the ARC a safe trip and fair winds, and we even had a walk onto the pier to watch them leave. I do however question the company behind the ARC and their ability to create rallies all over the world now if, as we have seen here, this monopolises the facilities of important passage ports and excludes anybody who does not join in on these hand holding rallies. We have not seen many people so far looking for adventure but instead have encountered many pompous yacht crews swanning about being very rude and giving cruising a bad name. I personally didn't have a problem with the ARC as it was, but now they appear not satisfied with excluding other cruisers from their destinations (Normally the best passage port) but have spurred off into other areas now used by cruisers to avoid the ARC like the Cape Verdes.

I understand Jimmy Cornell washed his hands of the ARC several years ago due to the commercialism of it but after causing all this damage he has now started another Atlantic rally in another cheap passage marina which will no doubt exclude more cruisers from the facilities as it increases in popularity.

It's a real shame, if you are thinking of doing an Atlantic circuit or further I would do it sooner rather than later, it’s a distinct possibility that soon you will need a certificate proving allegiance to one of these rallies before you will be allowed to even get within spitting distance of the Canaries in the future...

P.S. The other reason I don't think it is such a good idea is down to the rigid start date. We are looking at unsettled weather with black skies and squally conditions with bad visibility in the rain storms. For some of the weaker crews especially those with young family’s aboard I hope the conditions abate for you. Today is not a day I would depart on a long trip.
 
Arc comments. Having participated my views are that it's pretentious, safety checks were rigid which is good, some of the seminars were useful but then there's the "set in stone" departure date and time.. Seriously no one needs to pay a fee to embark on an Atlantic crossing (honestly after 24 hours you don't see another boat until 24 hours or so from St.Lucia, that was on a 16 day crossing). Radio check may feel good, the groups who leave before or after the golden "race" date set up their own radio net and, shock, they leave when the weather suits rather than on a set date. I know that friends who left before (owner is author of "the boy behind the gate" kindle sailing book) had much more fun than we did.

A note on provisioning; if you're leaving before then expect to spend hours in the supermarkets, if leaving after give the shops a chance to restock - I'm not joking, it's insane!!
 
SamanthaTabs said:
Arc comments. Having participated my views are that it's pretentious, safety checks were rigid which is good, some of the seminars were useful but then there's the "set in stone" departure date and time.. Seriously no one needs to pay a fee to embark on an Atlantic crossing (honestly after 24 hours you don't see another boat until 24 hours or so from St.Lucia, that was on a 16 day crossing). Radio check may feel good, the groups who leave before or after the golden "race" date set up their own radio net and, shock, they leave when the weather suits rather than on a set date. I know that friends who left before (owner is author of "the boy behind the gate" kindle sailing book) had much more fun than we did.

A note on provisioning; if you're leaving before then expect to spend hours in the supermarkets, if leaving after give the shops a chance to restock - I'm not joking, it's insane!!
Click to expand...

agree with all this as an previous arcie.

My provisioning idea is to go to a LP supermarket and take one of the unattended and full shopping trolleys to the checkout. Tralah! Much quicker.
 
dazautomatics said:
Sat in Las Palmas at the moment doing a few repairs before we head off on our Atlantic trip.

We would like to wish all the folks on the ARC a safe trip and fair winds, and we even had a walk onto the pier to watch them leave. I do however question the company behind the ARC and their ability to create rallies all over the world now if, as we have seen here, this monopolises the facilities of important passage ports and excludes anybody who does not join in on these hand holding rallies. We have not seen many people so far looking for adventure but instead have encountered many pompous yacht crews swanning about being very rude and giving cruising a bad name. I personally didn't have a problem with the ARC as it was, but now they appear not satisfied with excluding other cruisers from their destinations (Normally the best passage port) but have spurred off into other areas now used by cruisers to avoid the ARC like the Cape Verdes.

I understand Jimmy Cornell washed his hands of the ARC several years ago due to the commercialism of it but after causing all this damage he has now started another Atlantic rally in another cheap passage marina which will no doubt exclude more cruisers from the facilities as it increases in popularity.

It's a real shame, if you are thinking of doing an Atlantic circuit or further I would do it sooner rather than later, it’s a distinct possibility that soon you will need a certificate proving allegiance to one of these rallies before you will be allowed to even get within spitting distance of the Canaries in the future...

P.S. The other reason I don't think it is such a good idea is down to the rigid start date. We are looking at unsettled weather with black skies and squally conditions with bad visibility in the rain storms. For some of the weaker crews especially those with young family’s aboard I hope the conditions abate for you. Today is not a day I would depart on a long trip.
Click to expand...

Would you do me a favour? Go to Rolnautic and IF there's the Norwegian guy there (oh, wassisname?) ask him if you can buy TWO of every nut and bolt he's got ... and see what he says.
 
Morten ...

<<Anyway this time in Rolnautic I had the brilliant idea of buying a whole
selection of nuts and bolts, so that I wouldn't ever have to saw down long
bolts or use too-big screws. Of course, I have lots of nuts and bolts
already, but not quite enough. So we asked for a selection of two EVERY
bolt, nut and screw that they had. No chance (or less chance) of not having
the right one then, see?

I thought they might do this fairly quickly, but they wrote down all the
part numbers, yawn, and so we slid out to the bar. Wouldn't it be funny
when they realised that we'd gone? But they know me, that I would always be
back, so it wasn't too horrid. Laura felt very bad leraving them in the
lurch so after half an hour we all went back - but they still hadn't got it
all together, nor even started typing it into the computer, so back to the
bar and checking back a few more times. We plotted our next move with other
Sailor Bar regulars.

Finally after over three and a half hours (!) of order-entry toil by the
shop people, the bag of nuts and bolts and screws was ready on the counter
together with an invoice 12 pages long. Ah But No, I said, see, we actually
wnated it for two separate boats - two bags, not just one. Is that okay?.
Morten (the main guy, a Nowegian fluent in lots of languages) just went
laughingly ape**** at me, and demonstrated his fabulous grasp of English.
Hee hee. Hm, alright, well how much is it? Morten said it was ?100. Oh,
that's a bit too much - maybe we won't buy it. Morten went ape again. And
finally i said that one of the screws was quite expensive so could he take
that out and do the invoice again? I bought the bag so he didn't throw
winch handles at me.

For the rest of the week i encouraged other skippers to go and ask for two
of everything but their attempts weren't succesful. Sometimes I would nip in
to ask for just one screw, or check the part numbers, or try and complain
about one of the bolts being a bit too twisty-looking, and each time I was
merrily and loudly ejected. The "two of every nut and bolt and screw" is
now part of Rolnautic folklore, and if you ask for the same thing at this
most helpful of chandlers their response will probably begin with an F.>>
 
One day, one day! H i d will have no part but two neighbours have done it - from a village that is just about as far from the sea as you can get in England. She's been to Rodney Bay though.
 
Is there room to anchor now Las Palmas? We have been anchored in Arguineguin for the last week - we caught the bus to Las Palmas on Thursday to pay homage to Rolnautic's credit card machine and spotted ~50 yachts at anchor. We are planning to head round to Las Palmas on Tuesday and would be very pleased to know if there was a tiny spot for us in the anchorage.
 
£1.99 for tracker I'm sure it used to be free. Just looked at the forecast 'not wonderful' ahh if I retired from Atantic crossings by boat my last two would have been classed as awesome for a non planing boat

Canaries to Caribbean 15 days
Caribbean to UK (non stop) 21 days!

My previous east to west had been 25 and 26 days the mobo crossing in 8 doesn't count
 
Now the ARC circus has left town there is room in the anchorage, It is still a busy anchorage but 40% of the boats at anchor have come into the marina. Although for the cost I would go into the marina as the anchorage is very rolley from the port traffic who appear to get more ships on a night so a lee cloth would be mandatory, if you anchor to the outside of the anchorage as we did to keep away from being to close to other boats, you will be used as target practice by about 10,000 small boats from the Real club nautico next door on a weekend.

Ashman said:
Is there room to anchor now Las Palmas? We have been anchored in Arguineguin for the last week - we caught the bus to Las Palmas on Thursday to pay homage to Rolnautic's credit card machine and spotted ~50 yachts at anchor. We are planning to head round to Las Palmas on Tuesday and would be very pleased to know if there was a tiny spot for us in the anchorage.
Click to expand...
 
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