In our homes and in our hands, we’ve become used to using high-speed internet for everyday tasks as well as for non-stop entertainment. But now the threads of the worldwide…
atlantic crossing
Preparing for an Atlantic crossing: How to budget and avoid expensive late discoveries
The two most oft-cited reasons to join the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers are for the safety element and the social side. But a third reason is equally key: it’s a…
Seven Seas, Five Girls, One Boat – These 20-year-old best friends are sailing around the world
What if instead of going straight into a course or a job after finishing school, you set off to sail around the world with your best friends? Lisa, Thelma, Eva,…
How to provision like a pro for your next offshore adventure
Napoleon is credited for first decreeing that an army marches on its stomach, but it’s a fair bet that many a ship’s captain had already worked out that a well…
The enduring Atlantic Rally for Cruisers: Perspectives from the sailors who’ve done it
Ask Atlantic Rally for Cruisers sailors arriving in St Lucia what it was like to cross the Atlantic and most people will tell you about the practicalities, the weather, the…
40 years of the ARC: The evolution of a transatlantic icon
Back in 1985 Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, Mikhail Gorbachev in the Kremlin, and a world-famous pop star was airlifted off his capsized yacht when Drum – belonging to…
Buying a Yacht for £250,000-£500,0000: Inside the World of ARC Sailors Buying Their Dream Boat
The average house in the UK today costs around £290,000. But rather than buying a house, you could spend that money on a yacht instead. While it might sound a…
‘Deafening roars of thunder coincided simultaneously with mammoth bolts of lightning hitting the sea all around us’
I’ve always found local winds fascinating. One year in France, while racing a Q Class in a classics regatta, a whole fleet of spinnakers blew up ahead of me as…
Are you ready to take on an ocean crossing? How to refit and maintain a bluewater yacht
In 2012 I bought a neglected 15-year-old Hallberg-Rassy 46 which had stood ashore unsold for many years. She was strong, but had been somewhat abandoned – sails still furled, and…
A testing time for 140 yachts taking on an Atlantic Crossing
They call themselves The Lost Buoys, a nautical pun on the ragtag group led in Neverland by Peter Pan, the boy who wouldn’t grow up. The three friends in their…
Why so many sailors are making the switch to multihulls
Would you like a drink?” asks Fiona, one of the crew of Outremer 52 Inez V. Even if you’ve only just stepped aboard, as I have, you know you could…
Man overboard in ARC: US MRCC calls off active search. Another yacht abandoned in second incident.
A crew member taking part in this year’s ARC rally has been lost overboard. Yesterday, Monday 2 December, the Volvo 70 Ocean Breeze reported that a crew member had gone…
Advice on making an Atlantic crossing from people who have done it
“The moon is waxing and rising later now, so there are magnificent star-spotting opportunities,” the crew of Adina blogged. “The Plough, Orion’s Belt and Venus have been joined by the…
Sailing from Annapolis to Iceland on the viking routes of old
Heavy, heavy fog blanketed the boat. We had a rotating watch standing on the bow looking for growlers. Everything, and everyone, was soaked. Falken was charging fast through the horizon-less…
What are the best ways to keep a yacht’s crew happy?
If you have a happy boat, you can have disasters happen to you, and it’ll be fine. On an unhappy boat the smallest things can become an issue.” “A happy…
How to prepare for an Atlantic crossing with the ARC
Every autumn the pontoons of Las Palmas are a hive of activity, as hundreds of yachts prepare for an Atlantic crossing with the ARC and ARC+ rallies. Over its 38-year…
What’s the best autopilot kit for a transatlantic?
Few cruising skippers would argue with ocean sailing guru and founder of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) Jimmy Cornell when he says some form of self-steering is ‘essential for…
The ‘easy’ way to sail across the Atlantic?
It’s the dream that never fades. The desire to cross the Atlantic by boat seemingly doesn’t wane, no matter what the state of the global economy or geopolitical upheavals. Post-pandemic,…
How to prepare for an Atlantic crossing
In the spring of 2021, Laura Blom-Sipkens and her husband were chatting in their car when a thought suddenly struck her: we should take a break from work and take…
What should sailors do if they encounter migrant vessels at sea?
What would you do if you came across a migrant vessel adrift at sea? It’s a scenario many sailors have discussed because, unfortunately, it’s not uncommon to find desperate migrants…