Drawing on its wealth of experience gained from organising the very first round the world cruising rally - Europa92, and four subsequent round the world cruising rallies, World Cruising Club is now in the initial planning stages for World ARC, a circumnavigation cruising rally that is scheduled to commence in November 2007.

World ARC is being carefully designed to incorporate the most up-to-date routing information and the skills that World Cruising has acquired over 20 years of running ocean sailing events.

One of the most important lessons learned over the years is that if there is one single factor that can spoil the enjoyment of any voyage, however short or long, it is the burden of dealing with officials when clearing port in or out of most countries.

To ease that burden, the organisers will field a multi-lingual World Cruising Club team in each port to look after participants both ashore and afloat; weather and routing advice will be provided for each ocean leg, and there will be a bespoke event website providing yacht positions, news and pictures to enable family and friends to share the experience. The planned route will enable participating skippers to make the most of their cruise, scheduling crew changes and maintenance on route.

As WCC Director Andrew Bishop highlights: "World ARC provides all the fun of the ARC, but takes you on from the Caribbean, across the world's great oceans in a 20-month circumnavigation."

Timings and routes are provisional at this stage and may alter, subject to comments and interest being sought from potential participants.


Provisional key dates for World ARC



Nov 2007 ARC - Gran Canaria > St Lucia


Feb 2008 Caribbean > Panama


June 2008 South Pacific >Australia



Followed by either



Sept 2008 Indian Ocean > South Africa


Jan 2009 South Africa > Brazil > Caribbean > Europe


Or

Sept 2008 Australia > South East Asia


Feb 2009 Thailand >Indian Ocean Red Sea > Suez Canal > Eastern Mediterranean


For more information visit World Cruising at the London Boat Show until 15 January in the main Boulevard on Stand B704, or log on to: mail@worldcruising.com .


Yachting World, 11 January 2006