To ARC or not to ARC

pyrojames

pyrojames

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We are considering an Atlantic circuit at the end of next year, and I have always been rather anti organised rallies, so had not considered joining the ARC. Having met organised rally fleets in ports previously, the cliquiness put me off joining one. However, as we will have a 6 and a 7 year old on board, I wondered whether it would provide a useful social network for them.

Any ARCers or non-ARCers like to give their experiences, particularly those who have taken children?
 
We are also thinking of participating in the ARC 2012 but without children. Would also be interested in ARCers opinions.
 
Here is an article I wrote after taking part in the ARC. I hope it helps you decide...


Pros and Cons of rallying
Many sailors speak disparagingly of rally participants, assuming they are all beginners who wouldn’t leave the Solent without a nanny organisation to look after them and imply that real sailors travel independently. We have done both and would consider another rally in future. We met no-one on the rallies who couldn’t have gone across the ocean on their own, the supposed wet-behind-the-ears beginner is a complete myth.

Pro
The biggest draw for many people is the social side, getting to meet other crews, not to mention the numerous parties. For us the party circuit started in Lagos when we invited everyone who was flying an ARC flag aboard for drinks; we regularly met up with that group over the next 6 months in many anchorages.
The support provided by the rally organisers was useful, for example they found me an English-speaking dentist when I lost a tooth three days before departure from Las Palmas.
The daily radio net and position reporting meant that our family knew where we were (at least some of the time) and when things went wrong there was help at hand. Our friends on Spirit of Clyde rescued a French singlehander whose boat sank and two other boats stood by to help. Most rescues involve ARC participants helping non-ARC boats
Reserved berths at either end were useful, especially in Las Palmas and it was good to have someone to take our lines as we came into St Lucia with engine problems.
The ARC rallies are run as races and the friendly competition added to the interest of the passage. For the keen racers there was also an all-out racing division.
Because of the number of people taking part, some of the big names in ocean cruising came to give seminars, for example Jimmy Cornell on routes beyond the Caribbean and David Jones on Caribbean meteorology.

Con
Rallies always have pre-set start times and there is pressure to stick to those because of the shore team’s hotel and flight bookings. If the weather turns bad, as it did when we left Bermuda for the Azores, you have to be strong-minded to stay in harbour when others are pressing on.
In a very structured rally like the ARC there is no opportunity for unplanned stops so we missed out on the Cape Verdes and Barbados. For that reason alone we will probably avoid the ARC next time round.
Some crews get a bit over-enthusiastic about completing the crossing and hit the party scene hard. That gets a bit wearing if you’re moored right in front of the marina bar and the music is still going strong at 5a.m.
The downside of the racing element is the temptation to hang on to canvas a bit longer and risk damage to gear.
On a multi-leg rally like ARC Europe, the fast boats spend a lot of time in port waiting for the others to catch up and the slow boats have a shorter time to rest and repair before moving on.
The ARC isn't cheap. It is better value for money than others because the cost of staff flights is spread over 200+ boats but it still takes a big lump out of a cruising budget. The current cost for a 40 footer with 4 crew is over £900.
 
TCM of this parish, does it every year. He says that paying the ARC entry fee is cheaper than paying for the marina berths on both sides of the pond. And you get several free parties thrown in.

Am sure he will be along shortly to confirm or deny saying anything of the sort.
 
TCM also said, very cogently for him, that the Arc made it more special, because when you arrive it's an event, with welcoming committees, parties, etc.

Whereas if you do it alone you arrive on the other side, negotiate a parking spot, wander off to get insulted by customs and irritation, then find a bar and buy your crew a drink. Don't even get a tee shirt.
 
pyrojames said:
Any ARCers or non-ARCers like to give their experiences, particularly those who have taken children?
Click to expand...


We have left with two 2.5 and 6 yo daughters, the route may not have been too usual (canaries, senegal, gambia, now brasil) but our main regret is we have not met any other family with young children. There were a few other boats with children in Gomera but the Cape Verde -> Caribbean route seemed favourite. More French than UK boats, meaning they were rather going to Martinique or so.

My personal impression, from seeing gathering ARC boats and crews in Las Palmas, is that children are rather an exception, a bit of instant media exposure, "oh look at that 30ft boat with 30 children onboard" etc, they look more an exception than on independent sailing boats; but that is just an impression

My personal advice, if you find a route followed by other boats with children, do all you can to follow it; we have two children so it is less pronounced, but in a couple of other fellow boats with only one children aboard the parents were seriously worried as their child begun talking like and adult, thinking like an adult, acting like an adult...

all imho of course :smile:
 
snowleopard said:
The biggest draw for many people is the social side, getting to meet other crews, not to mention the numerous parties. For us the party circuit started in Lagos when we invited everyone who was flying an ARC flag aboard for drinks; we regularly met up with that group over the next 6 months in many anchorages.
Click to expand...
Having crossed a couple of times without the ARC, nevertheless we found no shortage of social opportunities. In November and December all the main yacht harbours in the western Canaries have yachts preparing for the crossing and crews will be getting together and partying. Children seemed to have no difficulty finding friends. (We noticed when that happened, often the yachts would stick together thereafter). Similarly Mindelo in Cabo Verde, and then on again on arrival in December and January at all the usual destinations in the Caribbean (Barbados, St Lucia, Le Marin in Martinique).

It won't be quite the same group of people on departure and arrival, but it will be some of the same. And you do go on meeting up - the internet makes it easy.

Main conversation topic on arrival: Did you do it with the ARC?
 
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I suspect one of the unwritten facts about the ARC is that the help from other people involved can be tremendous. I know one forumite who did it, and who's brother is an extremely good mechanic and engine guy, and was crew with his wife. The brother put in hours getting at least one boat's engine problems sorted at very last minute at no cost, whereas if you had to get local engineers out to work those antisocial hours, it would have cost a fortune.
 
I agree with the sentiments here, and have done 2 westbound atlantix without arc, two with ARC. I'm doing ARC again in Nov. All the points above are relevant, and I stand by the sentiments about it being more special with ARC as per TK, and the financial thing as per stingo.

The financial thing needs a bit of explaining. Las Palmas is The Place to be before a transat westbound. loads of proper saily boats going distant places, fab for parts and services etc. The marina is council run and for 50ft catamaran the price per nite is 22euros as opposed to 45-50 euros at most other serious marinas in canaries. Conventional wisdom is to get dow to canaries before mid september...and arc leaves about 70ish days later 70 x 20 euros saving 1400 euros - the arc costs less than this.

Note also that unless you are with the arc, you can't stay in the cheap LP marina, or not for long. You can stay for a fortnight in sept or oct, perhaps only a few days in Nov. Non-arc boats in LP are told to be ready to leave at 30mins notice and always have someone on board. This reinforces the financial thing with a significant convenience/inconvenience issue.

Both previous arcs the weather was ok on the day of departure. You can of course stay in the marina (or cross the line to start and then park up in the marina) if wx awful.

This isn't an exhaustive response but it's late here...
 
I agree mostly with the posts - Juniper crossed in ARC 2009. Rather than repeat all the points, our main reason for recommending the event would be;

The atmosphere in LP pre event was enjoyable with a large number of informative and social events that you can take or leave (and keep on being Billy No-mates!!).

Supermarkets were geared up for the fleet with personal shoppers on hand to translate language or packaging differences.

En-route, in addition to the obvious reassuring fact that 225 of you were out there doing "same day same way", the ARC website was a great tool for elderly parents and friends to keep track of you. It also provided fuel for the competitive juices, as did the daily position log e-mail - it was a race, right????

The atmosphere in St Lucia was superb and the support for fellow competitors was evident to all.

We did not have small kids on board but the families we met who did found the event invaluable for social interaction and fun both before, during (SSB net) and after both in St Lucia and for the meeting up as everyone spread out across the islands.

I don't think we needed the ARC to make a successful passage but it certainly added to the enjoyment of the whole experience and we will do it again next time....
 
Been a couple of times (not ARC) benefits to us were enjoying Christmas New Year in Canaries, plenty of yachts with families, great social time of year for all the Spanish Islands, leaving early January with other boats we had met and a relatively quick crossing as the trades are by then blowing. We did 14 days (and 23hrs!) in a Sweden 38 and then a very relaxed 19days in a Bav 390. You also have the option of heading for Barbados (not sure where the arc ends up these days) or Tobago which is otherwise harder to get to...and then Trini carnival before heading back up teh chain for a normal circuit.

And you could always change your mind on route and head for Cape Verde to give a slightly shorter leg if the crew/familiy are not enjoying anything or you have things that need fixing.

You can always start arc and not finish arc I guess but they do start way to early in my opinion and hence have a higher chance of getting no wind or weather systems effecting you within the first 300-400miles. But you do get a welcoming comittee.

I must just add that Barbados customs at port charles made our arrival quite special were friendly, helpful and genuinely welcomed us to their island. They came to the boat and we felt welcomed by the locals great friendly service.
 
Just a couple of points:

there were 52 boats on the Rum Runners net, helping each other out with engine and steering problems etc. And plenty more like me: silent check ins. That's a lot of support from non-arcies. If you stop still, as some friends did, you find that there are a lot of boats moving thru'! On a couple of occassions I had VHF contact with other boats.

Marina fees: I didn't pay any anywhere until I'd been in WI for 7 weeks. incidentally that was in Rodney Bay Marina when I wanted to have a quick maintenance check. Three nights.

I had a great welcome in Prickly Bay

There are loads of children on the route. There was a children's net in the afternoons!

You can buy a cheap logging device for you relatives.

This is not to say don't do the ARC. I've met loads of people who really enjoyed it and I wouldn't take that away from them. It was just not for me. But the party atmosphere as i left LP was great as loads of us left in the first weather window for weeks!
 
ARC and Children

We did the ARC with children in 2007 and probably would not go ARC again, we did meet up with a good number of "kids boats" as they became known, some of these were ARC boats and other N(ot)ARC. There was no barrier between NARC and ARC boats, all of us with kids on board recognised the need to organise our routing to ensure that there were regular meet ups for kids to get together. This was organised by email with folk letting each other know what route they were following and other responding with I will be there too and before long we had a party, the kids certainly looked forward to these meet ups. We also sailed with one other boat with children on board for a good while and spent a great deal of our time anchored up nearby from Corme in NW Spain to Anguilla.

We did the usual sort of kid stuff but on boats, sleepovers, boat swaps, sailing and shopping, in Antigua the kids organised themselves to go out for dinner with no adult supervision, aged 8 to about 13 they booked tables and after spending several hours getting ready went off for pizza together in a restaurant just outside the gates of English Harbour.

We met up with the majority of kids boats along the way and always made a point of getting contact details so that the email net was flung wide open, some boats only made fleeting appearences at one or two events others were season ticket holders. The ARC certainly helped get this gang together but it was not what kept it going, my sense is that kids in the ARC are not high on the agenda for the organisers. If you sail long distance with children though it is likely that you will meet otehr boats with kids and a few emails and posts on boards such as this will probably help put together the start of an email network. Our experience was that there were relatively few British boats sailing with children, more Dutch and Norwegian and Swedish.
 
To go back to the original question of whether to ARC or NARC with young children.

The main problem with the ARC is that the departure date is set far too early and is an absolutely fixed date whether the weather is suitable or not. Unfortunately, as happened last year when the ARC set out in appalling conditions, the weather has not settled down this early in the season.

With young children on board it would be advisable to wait until the weather settles down and then select your departure date when the 5-day forecast is good. If you have paid for the ARC there are no refunds for missing the date and the benefits you have paid for.

There are few children on the ARC and other children on boats crossing at the same time is irrelevant on passage. The majority of NARCers leave later and you are more likely to find other families in the marina and (very good) anchorage at Las Palmas after the ARC has gone, who will then be crossing in better weather and can be met again the other side.

We were in Las Palmas just after the ARC had left in 2009 and stayed in the marina from the beginning of December until we left late in February 2010 - the only possible restriction of stay in the marina is whilst the ARC boats are there (although we do know of boats who weren't chucked out). We crossed last year in February and have since regularly seen cruising families in the Caribbean. It's easy to stay in touch with email and radio nets.

A few comments on some of the other points made in this thread:
- The ARC fee does not pay for the marina at LP and gives only discounted fee for the marina in St Lucia (info from ARC web site)
- We were not insulted by customs in St Lucia; they were very friendly and helpful
- Plenty of room for parking the boat outside of ARC dates, and good anchorages both ends for free
- Social life everywhere is brilliant; we've met some marvellous people and made lots of friends who we keep in touch with by email and radio nets
- Cruisers help each other all the time
- Christmas in LP, especially the 12th night parade for the children, and carnival in February were brilliant

Whatever you decide - you will have a brilliant time.
 
Many thanks to everyone. There seems to be a quite a range of responses, but I think the fixed dates of the ARC, and the need to be flexible with children on board, will probably sway me away from ARcing, but then nothing is final!
 
pyrojames said:
Many thanks to everyone. There seems to be a quite a range of responses, but I think the fixed dates of the ARC, and the need to be flexible with children on board, will probably sway me away from ARcing, but then nothing is final!
Click to expand...
As a non-Arcer.

I think, like many things, it's a case of circumstance.

We left UK (children aged 3 & 5) in '93 & went cruising for 6 years. This side of Panama, we met & made friends with quite a few cruisers with children on board who were sub-teens. The nationalities were varied - UK, French, Scandinavian, Dutch, South African & American etc. The children got on famously - language didn't seem a problem to them.

There were periods of time for the children when only adults seemed to be about, but the eldest was able to hold his own with them about sea-life, fishing tactics and so on.

We may have been lucky with fellow cruisers having a smattering of children onboard - but all I know is that, when we went there was no shortage of companions for the kids.

Of course, when you set off there could be a dearth - who's to know?

Having 2 children on board is a bonus as hopefully there will be an interaction between them that will carry them through periods when there are no other children around.

My children have grown & flown the nest. If someone asked me if, taken back in time, would I do it again with the children I'd answer - without hesitation - yes.
 
The ARC departure is designed to maximise the time available in the Caribbean for cruising so it is ideal for those doing a 1-year Atlantic circuit.
 
The ARC has a 'club' for kids with organized events, they will meet lots of cruising kids. What we found amazing is you can see a bunch of kids speaking five different languages and they all get on together and play. Highly recommended.
 
Did ARC 2007

Loved it... Took off from Las Palmas and did not see another yacht for 14 days. Great parties both ends. Thoroughly recommend it. No children, five ancient guys and one young lad (loads of energy!!!). 16 day trip. Go for it!!!
 
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