A Colorful Start For ARC 2001

Photos by Gilles Martin-Raget Courtesy www.catana-live.com

On Sunday 25th November 2001 ARC 2001, the largest transoceanic crossing in the world, started from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and saw more than 1,000 sailors, in 219 yachts from across the world, start the annual migration to St Lucia in the Caribbean.

Andrew Bishop, general manager of ARC organisers World Cruising Club (part of Challenge Business) commented: "The start to this year's ARC was absolutely fantastic with a tremendous atmosphere in the marina as the yachts were leaving. Despite rain in the morning the weather held out for a sunny start with north easterly force 4-5 winds promising a good crossing for the fleet. There was a particularly colourful start to the event in the racing division with several yachts opting for a spinnaker start. First over the line was Diva, a Tartan 4100, but the crew of French IMX40, Meta-Baron were first boat with a kite up."

The view from the bridge of the Committee boat, the Spanish navy vessel, El Ferrol, was fantastic, as the yachts streamed across the line. However, there was some confused starting in the cruising class, as lots of yachts tried to squeeze in at the committee boat end of the mile long start line.

Photos by Gilles Martin-Raget Courtesy www.catana-live.com

Most boats were soon well clear and in the clean air many more spinnakers could be seen going up. Thomas Reese on Cakrawalla was one of them. "We are finally on our way to Sunny St Lucia!" said Thomas after the start. He continues "On Sunday, we left the dock and headed to the start line. It was a gorgeous day to start a sailboat race. Sunny skies and 15 - 20 knot breezes. A little later, after the fleet has settled, we set the big chute and sailed south to round Gran Canaria. We managed to carry the spinnaker to almost dinner time when the winds and seas were causing the boat to round up. After a wonderful dinner of Chicken Corden Bleu prepared by Dave, we sailed all night under screacher and reefed main. Today the big chute was up again, but now we are flying the little chute for better control in the seas. "

Most boats are having an excellent sail in brisk north-easterlies. Challenge Adventure Sailing yacht, CGU reports averaging 10 knots in the first 24 hours; Cakrawalla had a run of 225 miles and Swan 68 Lady in Red, has averaged 235 since the start. Amongst the smaller boats, Matt Abbiss on Sigma 33, Disco Inferno reports cruising at a "steady 7 knots having taken the spinnaker down when we hit 11 knots!"

However, it has not all been plain sailing. Ian McKinney and his crew on the Sydney 41 El Sid, suffered one of the first breakages that are an inevitable result of strong winds, when they broke their boom today. A disappointed Ian reports that they are going to continue under jury rig.

Photos by Gilles Martin-Raget Courtesy www.catana-live.com

There was more drama aboard Oyster 485, Into The Blue, when they collided with a whale today. Skipper Paul Clark describes the incident: "We struck what we believe was a whale, with a force that sent everyone flying. Two impacts were noticed and surface blood was seen at the stern. All on board are shaken, but now a little bit more alert. There was no obvious damage to our yacht; we are not taking on any water and the steering is normal."

The ARC fleet looks set to enjoy fine sailing conditions for the next few days, with NE 20 knots forecast until Thursday. ARC weather forecaster Weather Consultancy Services are also keeping a close eye on the deep storm in the western Atlantic, which has now been upgraded to Hurricane Olga. Its current position is 32.4N 52.6W and it is moving erratically north at 8kts. Forecaster Jon Ejdowski commenting on the storm says "Olga will then tend to drift west and we expect it will become weaker by Friday, not posing any threat to the ARC fleet."

Follow the fleet's progress at www.worldcruising.com

Another website with frequent updates is www.catana-live.com