Annual ARC Rally Begins

The 25th running of the granddaddy of all cruiser rallies, the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, got underway yesterday from the Canary Islands with a massive 233-boat fleet bound for Rodney Bay in St. Lucia. Though it looked as if the fleet would be greeted with rain at the start, boats from 26 nations sailed out of Las Palmas de Gran Cranaria under bright sun and light reaching conditions. Thousands of spectators gathered on shore and on the water to send off the fleet, which included the following American boats:

• Bambochip, Pierre Bausset’s Florida-based Shipman Seaway 80
• Glass Slipper, John Martin’s Michigan-based Moody 46
• Herceg-Novi, Nikola Kovilic’s Chicago-based Roberts 58
• Moonshadow, George Backhus & Merima Dzaferi’s Sausalito-based Deerfoot 62
• Neki, John Noble’s Oyster 655
• Time Warp, Peter Nelson’s Seattle-based Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 45.2
• Westwind, Josef Kol’s Ferretti 12.0

The lead boats should make the 2,700-mile crossing in 14 days, with the slowest boats taking as long as 21. Keep up with rally news — as well as read a variety of entries’ logs — at the ARC website.