mocruising
Member
I guess they do it so they can be tucked in for Christmas, but a later departure would mean making better use of the trades and a faster passage. Right or wrong.
Does the ARC start too early.
- Thread starter mocruising
- Start date
chinita
Well-known member
Right.
Ariadne
Active member
All of the above + those who not given themselves enough time to cruise properly have to be heading back to the UK/Europe around April time!
Leave crossing till mid Jan Feb and it should be a lot better and more consistant winds. Saying that they didn't do to bad this year.
Leave crossing till mid Jan Feb and it should be a lot better and more consistant winds. Saying that they didn't do to bad this year.
Cardo
Active member
I was thinking about this one when doing some research into it.
However, the answer lay in the story of one crossing where the boat in question took their time. They didn't arrive until just before Christmas and found most if not all of the ARC staff had buggered off home already.
However, the answer lay in the story of one crossing where the boat in question took their time. They didn't arrive until just before Christmas and found most if not all of the ARC staff had buggered off home already.
tri39
New member
They definitely do leave too soon weatherwise. But it creates room in the Las Palmas for the NARCs to stock up before they sensibly leave in Dec or Jan.
chinita
Well-known member
My earliest recollections of the ARC, over 20 years ago, were of photographs of happy crews eating turkey mid-Atlantic.
These days, with an entry fee of £3,500 for starters, I think the crew demographic may has shifted somewhat.
These days, with an entry fee of £3,500 for starters, I think the crew demographic may has shifted somewhat.
Cardo
Active member
Where did you pluck that figure from??
Their brochure thingumabob says the following:
Plus £75 per crew member.
Have I missed some other hidden fees?
capnsensible
Well-known member
Dont see the problem. Its the best time to start after the normal hurricane season and gives people the maximum time in the Windies.
You could leave later of course and take a day or two less on passage. But you could also have spent 6 or 8 weeks cruising about on the other side.
Some years are quicker than others, some years you still get storms. Nature.
Anyway, having crossed that way 5 times, I will, next time, look to go as early in November as possible. Not at all bothered with a few extra days at sea, used to doing patrols of 90 odd days!!
Coming back is the more difficult call. Have done 5 of those too. April, mad (done it), May, yuk, June good, July fab, very very rare for a hurricane that early.
Hope this helps!
You could leave later of course and take a day or two less on passage. But you could also have spent 6 or 8 weeks cruising about on the other side.
Some years are quicker than others, some years you still get storms. Nature.
Anyway, having crossed that way 5 times, I will, next time, look to go as early in November as possible. Not at all bothered with a few extra days at sea, used to doing patrols of 90 odd days!!
Coming back is the more difficult call. Have done 5 of those too. April, mad (done it), May, yuk, June good, July fab, very very rare for a hurricane that early.
Hope this helps!
TQA
New member
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Leaving when they do on a FIXED date means it is a weather crapshoot.
The year I signed up for it [my first ocean crossing ] they left in a southwesterly. I did not even leave the dock, just bonkers to go when the forecast is bad.
But this year they had great conditions except for the slower boats hitting a windhole close to the finish.
IMHO Late Dec early Jan would be better but I understand why they go early.
The year I signed up for it [my first ocean crossing ] they left in a southwesterly. I did not even leave the dock, just bonkers to go when the forecast is bad.
But this year they had great conditions except for the slower boats hitting a windhole close to the finish.
IMHO Late Dec early Jan would be better but I understand why they go early.
Neil_Y
Well-known member
No, let them go and leave some space for those that choose a more relaxed schedule. I liked the little cruising communities that developed before departure in the various marinas over Christmas and New Year.
chinita
Well-known member
Apologies. I am talking bollux and you are quite correct. I think that fee was quoted to me as part of a charter deal.
KellysEye
Active member
When you leave can be a bit of a gamble. Every four or five years the ARC gets hit with constant 25 knot winds often going well over thirty, plus expect fifty knot squalls. Also every four of five years the Caribbean Christmas wind are gale force and last from late December to the end of April. We were out ther one year when that happened and not one yacht moved during that period, there are no breaks. Sometimes there are no Christmas winds and if there are they normally last about six weeks and are 25 to 35 knots.
Take your pick and hope for the best really. I'd rather be there for Christmas.
Take your pick and hope for the best really. I'd rather be there for Christmas.
SHUG
Active member
CHINITA :Apologies. I am talking bollux and you are quite correct.
Ahhh if only more posts had this sort of honesty!!!!!!
Ahhh if only more posts had this sort of honesty!!!!!!
tcm
...
agree with capn sensible - sometimes arc leaves at a great time, sometimes not... but they have constraints - they gotta fix it cos there’s so many people and so others can orgainse around them (marinas etc) it’s gotta be at about that time every year AND a massive number of participants have Proper Jobs to get back to and even Proper Lives with houses and families and things, unless you take the Split Up And Sail option of course. All that means it gotta start a while after xmas, or a while before.
Erm KE, u are talking the usual bs : every few years the arc gets “hit”” by 25 kjnots winds?? - quite a few of us are *hoping* for at least 25knot winds and I flew the big spi way over 30 good for 40 with extra genoa and staysail pinned out (and Ride Of The Valkyries on deck speakers LOUD) as the squall (easier if u callem "rain clouds") comes over. The name of the game is wind-powered fun, not white-knuckle survival 24/7. Wimps should stay at home and ease up on visiting their trepidation on others, IMHO
PS In the spirit of this thread I shd confirm that I may well be talking bollx again and others are most likely quite correct.
Erm KE, u are talking the usual bs : every few years the arc gets “hit”” by 25 kjnots winds?? - quite a few of us are *hoping* for at least 25knot winds and I flew the big spi way over 30 good for 40 with extra genoa and staysail pinned out (and Ride Of The Valkyries on deck speakers LOUD) as the squall (easier if u callem "rain clouds") comes over. The name of the game is wind-powered fun, not white-knuckle survival 24/7. Wimps should stay at home and ease up on visiting their trepidation on others, IMHO
PS In the spirit of this thread I shd confirm that I may well be talking bollx again and others are most likely quite correct.
Neil_Y
Well-known member
Spot on! (not the bullocks bit)
KellysEye
Active member
>Erm KE, u are talking the usual bs : every few years the arc gets “hit”” by 25 kjnots winds?? - quite a few of us are *hoping* for at least 25knot winds and I flew the big spi way over 30 good for 40 with extra genoa and staysail pinned out (and Ride Of The Valkyries on deck speakers LOUD) as the squall (easier if u callem "rain clouds") comes over. The name of the game is wind-powered fun, not white-knuckle survival 24/7. Wimps should stay at home and ease up on visiting their trepidation on others, IMHO
I see you are being rude as usual and assuming what people are like (visiting their trepidation on others). Wimps don't do Atlantic crossings, I've never met one, have you? We had a light winds crossing and prayed for squalls to get some speed up. We would have preferred the stronger winds because we have a long keel heavy displacement boat.
You might have a gung ho attitude but we did the ARC finish line when the strong winds were blowing. The damage was awesome, for example: broken spinnaker poles and mast tracks torn off; goose necks broken; rigging broken, one ruddder torn off: life rings and containers washed off; damage to lower bow lights, I could go on. Also sails and spinnakers, most boats arrived with fewer sails than they started with. One yacht arrived with only a staysail everything esle was wrecked so badly it couldn't be repaired. I wouldn't call that windpowered fun, they didn't.
I see you are being rude as usual and assuming what people are like (visiting their trepidation on others). Wimps don't do Atlantic crossings, I've never met one, have you? We had a light winds crossing and prayed for squalls to get some speed up. We would have preferred the stronger winds because we have a long keel heavy displacement boat.
You might have a gung ho attitude but we did the ARC finish line when the strong winds were blowing. The damage was awesome, for example: broken spinnaker poles and mast tracks torn off; goose necks broken; rigging broken, one ruddder torn off: life rings and containers washed off; damage to lower bow lights, I could go on. Also sails and spinnakers, most boats arrived with fewer sails than they started with. One yacht arrived with only a staysail everything esle was wrecked so badly it couldn't be repaired. I wouldn't call that windpowered fun, they didn't.
capnsensible
Well-known member
Wasnt the ARC fault though, was it? That can happen anytime......
Got that T shirt, Tropical Storm Delta, 2005.
Got that T shirt, Tropical Storm Delta, 2005.
tcm
...
I’m afraid that I *would* call that wind-powered fun KE! Did you never smash a sledge, trash a bike over some jumps, over-rev a motorbike and blow the motor, rip/smash or lose otherwise perfect ski gear? These aren’t cheap or damage-free activities and neither is boating. Ok, bit white knuckle at the time but Kerbang,people smash stuff, so what? You almost certainly CERTAINLY won’t die offshore on an ARC transat. Not 100% but very, very close, and in any case if you take 1500ish people and sit them on a park bench one or two will die doing that. I mean, even if you throw yourself over the side during a transat for MOB practice (the commercial lifeboats etc training tho not RYA do this a lot) you will almost certainly not die and i’ve done that a few times too.
"Most of them finished with fewer sails", ooh golly - and how many boats finish a transat with actually *more* sails than when they started? Hm? Yeah, none at all, ever. Edit: i think your sentence construction gave me a free pop there, sorry - i know that you meant that the rest ended up with the same number of sails, but it didn’t read like that....
Anyways, look - I imagine that you were involved in 2007 ARC? That’s the year we followed the arc and stingo suggestd we charge along without getting weather forecasts, cos after all, there’s not a fat lot you can do anyway, just some routing several days ahead is what you need. And 2007 *was* windpowered fun, quite lairy 5-6m seas and stingo is still going on about it!
KE, the thing is .... I read your panic-strewn transat blog some years back where you breathlessly recorded your arg survival trip (ie arc transat) including the number of hours at each wind speed. It was even your blog that said (and i think i quote exactly here “They call it the milk run - it isn’t”. Wrong! It IS the milk run and a few of us a planning a transat on a bouncy castle. See? I mean just taking one aspect of your litany of disaster - I rip at least one lower nav light off every transat - we don’t go ashen-faced about it. Okay, i sed bollx another fifty quid dammit. I rip a sail every transat and again, it’s no big deal. It’s part of what happens and in some (more serious) races EVERYBODY rips a sail cos if they didn’t rip anything they prolly weren’t trying hard enough.
I’m guessing you didn’t play Wagner in the squalls, ever, you don’t snowboard, you never mucked about with super-hi-gearing a pushbike to get speeds so that you can cycle downhill over 50mph and overtake cars, you never tried learning how to trick-crash a motorbike .... and you’ve sold the boat, right? Okay maybe you haven’t sold the boat but you ain’t planning another transat cos it erm “doesn’t fit with our plans"
Finally, yes I have met quite a LOT of transat wimps, loads, who do it just the once for the t-shirts and lifetime yotclub/internet bragging rights. And from what you say, I’m sorry to say that.... That’s you KE, that is. Think about it - If you meet lots of other heart-in-mouth phew thank god that’s over types... none of you class yerself as wimps, do you? No. You’re heroic sailors. Well maybe, except the french race in near-tea-tray designs single handed at double the speed or more. See?
"Most of them finished with fewer sails", ooh golly - and how many boats finish a transat with actually *more* sails than when they started? Hm? Yeah, none at all, ever. Edit: i think your sentence construction gave me a free pop there, sorry - i know that you meant that the rest ended up with the same number of sails, but it didn’t read like that....
Anyways, look - I imagine that you were involved in 2007 ARC? That’s the year we followed the arc and stingo suggestd we charge along without getting weather forecasts, cos after all, there’s not a fat lot you can do anyway, just some routing several days ahead is what you need. And 2007 *was* windpowered fun, quite lairy 5-6m seas and stingo is still going on about it!
KE, the thing is .... I read your panic-strewn transat blog some years back where you breathlessly recorded your arg survival trip (ie arc transat) including the number of hours at each wind speed. It was even your blog that said (and i think i quote exactly here “They call it the milk run - it isn’t”. Wrong! It IS the milk run and a few of us a planning a transat on a bouncy castle. See? I mean just taking one aspect of your litany of disaster - I rip at least one lower nav light off every transat - we don’t go ashen-faced about it. Okay, i sed bollx another fifty quid dammit. I rip a sail every transat and again, it’s no big deal. It’s part of what happens and in some (more serious) races EVERYBODY rips a sail cos if they didn’t rip anything they prolly weren’t trying hard enough.
I’m guessing you didn’t play Wagner in the squalls, ever, you don’t snowboard, you never mucked about with super-hi-gearing a pushbike to get speeds so that you can cycle downhill over 50mph and overtake cars, you never tried learning how to trick-crash a motorbike .... and you’ve sold the boat, right? Okay maybe you haven’t sold the boat but you ain’t planning another transat cos it erm “doesn’t fit with our plans"
Finally, yes I have met quite a LOT of transat wimps, loads, who do it just the once for the t-shirts and lifetime yotclub/internet bragging rights. And from what you say, I’m sorry to say that.... That’s you KE, that is. Think about it - If you meet lots of other heart-in-mouth phew thank god that’s over types... none of you class yerself as wimps, do you? No. You’re heroic sailors. Well maybe, except the french race in near-tea-tray designs single handed at double the speed or more. See?
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Ludd
New member
I don't intend doing the ARC, but I do think the truth lies somewhere between TCM,s posting and Kelly's Eye.
Swagman
New member
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