www.worldcruising.com

Organising the ARC675,000 nautical miles; 250 yachts;

1,250 people and 30 languages!

JEREMY WYATT

A look at the infrastructure behind World Cruising Club, organisers of the world’s largest offshore sailing event – the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers - and how they go about organizing and supporting their clients, including preparation and typical equipment that is carried onboard the sailing yachts crossing the Atlantic.

WCC Organise Sailing Events

• Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC)

• ARC Europe• Rally Portugal• World ARC• Caribbean 1500• Cruising Seminars

The Atlantic Circuit

Around the World in 2012

The ARC – some statistics1986 - 2009

• First ARC was in 1986• 4,460 yachts• Over 17,000 crew• Over 30 nations

annually• Largest to date 1999:

235 yachts• 25th Edition this year:

250 yachts expected

The ARC – some statistics1986 - 2009

• If all the ARC yachts were laid end to end, the line would stretch for over 39 nautical miles or almost halfway around the island of Gran Canaria.

• In the period, over 17,000 crews aged from babies to almost 80 have taken part.

How Long Does It Take?The ARC Course Record:2006 11 days 05:32:30 Capricorno Maxi2003 11 days 13:12:20 Spirit VOR 602001 11 days 23:41:43 Spirit of Diana Farr 652000 12 days 18:07:20 Multicap Caraibes Open 501998 13 days 02:58:02 Yes! Sydney 60

The Slowest:1986 33 days 21hrs Dunkers Achilles 24due to breakages had to hand steer for the last 1,300nm. A Typical Crossing:An ‘average’ cruising yacht will take 19-21 daysand can motor as required.

What is a typical ARC yacht?

The average ARC yacht in the last 5 years is:• 14.2m LOA (45’-46’)• 9 years old• Monohull: Beneteau Oceanis 46,

Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 45, or Hallberg Rassy 46

• Catamaran: Lagoon 440• Crew: 5 adults• Families: 10% of the average boats

will have two children onboard

From Which Countries?Country 1986-2010 yachts

United Kingdom 1337

Germany 449

Norway 199

USA 161

Netherlands 131

Italy 107

France 97

Sweden 80

Switzerland 72

Spain 65

How We Run WCC

Reaching Our Clients

• 99% of client enquiries via website

• Offers news, yacht logs, photos and yacht positions to involve family and friends

Reaching Our Clients

• Clients can enter and pay online

• Organise their crew, access event information, get special equipment prices etc via Member’s Area

• Forums allow sailors to share information, find crew, buy/sell spare equipment.

Reaching Our Clients

• Supporters can follow yachts via our website

Reaching Our Clients• Each year we have over 24 staff on the team

for the start of the ARC in Las Palmas• Speaking 7 languages!

Working With Sponsors

• Over 30 Corporate Members plus event and port sponsors around the world.

Equipment on the yachts

ARC Equipment Survey• Real experiences from

200 yachts each year• Typically reviewing

equipment used for over 900,000 nautical miles

• Steering & power; sails; navigation; top 5 items

• Equipment Rated for:– Reliability– Ease of Use– Value for Money

Electronic Equipment

• E-mail at sea (via SSB radio or satellite phone)

• Installed VHF radio (25w)• EPIRB (min. 406MHz)• Positions tracked via Iridium transponders

As organisers, WCC require yachts to have:

Communications at Sea

ARC Communications Equipment Fit

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Year

% o

f fl

eet

SSB Only Satellite Only SSB & Satellite

Data at Sea

Data at sea

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Iridi

um

SSB Mod

em

Inm

arsat

F33

-77

Inm

arsat

Flee

t Bro

adba

nd

Oth

er

Type

%

ARC 2009 System Type 2007 2008 2009

Iridium 80% 79% 80%

Inmarsat MiniM 6% 6% 1%

Inmarsat Fleet33 14% 6% 6%

Inmarsat Fleet Broadband 0% 9% 13%

• Iridium is cheaper• Fleet BB growing• New iSat phone may

make an impact

Other Equipment - Navigation

Nr Replies Response RatioPaper charts 100 54.3%Fixed plotter 148 80.4%Computer 70 38.0%Total 184 100%

NAVIGATION - methods

Other Equipment - Radar

Nr Replies Response RatioFuruno 33 16.8%Raymarine 116 59.1%Simrad 4 2.0%JRC 1 <1%Other 6 3.0%No Responses 36 18.3%Total 196 100%

RADAR- type

Used on average for 8 hours per day

Other Equipment - RadarTop number is the count of respondents selecting the option. Bottom % is percent of the total respondents selecting the option. Poor OK Good Superb

6 42 71 334% 27% 46% 21%

5 45 66 313% 31% 45% 21%

6 57 59 224% 39% 41% 15%

RADAR: rate for:

Reliability

Ease of Use

Value for money

Other Equipment - AISNr Replies Response Ratio

Comar 16 8.1%Digital Yacht 10 5.1%EasyAIS 10 5.1%Furuno 11 5.6%NASA 11 5.6%Raymarine 37 18.8%Simrad 7 3.5%Other 14 7.1%No Responses 80 40.8%Total 196 100%

AIS- What make is fitted

Other Equipment - AISTop number is the count of respondents selecting the option. Bottom % is percent of the total respondents selecting the option. Poor OK Good Superb

9 21 42 428% 18% 36% 36%

6 18 41 495% 16% 35% 42%

8 23 38 417% 20% 33% 36%

AIS: rate for:

Reliability

Ease of Use

Value for money

Power Generation Onboard• 58 fitted wind generators – (17 Rutland)

• 24 yachts had a water powered (towed) generator onboard (of which 12 were Duogen)

• 53 yachts fitted with solar panels – ave. 200W

• 90 yachts had diesel generators:(Onan 23, Fischer Panda 22, Mastervolt 11)

• 99 yachts used main engine for charging; with an average of 3 hours per day usage.

We asked all ARC 2009 Skippers to list their 5 most important items of equipment onboard

The suggestions were wide reaching. Some more unusual responses were: yogurt maker, self-inflating airbed and vodka for killing fish!

We ranked all the suggestions by popularity and the top 10 favourite items voted for by ARC 2009 skippers were……………………………..

Top 10 equipment items:1 autopilot2 watermaker3 satphone4 generator5 chart plotter6 radar7 AIS8 fridge9 SSB Radio10 spinnaker pole

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