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ARC 2005
Thiswas a tradewind crossing with a difference.. It was never going to be a fast crossing, but our aim was to beat the Oyster 72 Luskentyre to St Lucia. We got a great start being in the first 10% of yachts over the line (not bad when there are over 200 starting!) but the wind rapidly died before blowing 25 knots from the SW. Unfortunately, gear failure put us back into Las Palmas losing around 8 hrs on the opposition, but determined to give it a shot we left following the repair.
Heading south was the key to getting into the trades early. Whilst many yachts went to the Cape Verde's to fuel up, we passed 20nm to the west of them still going south to 14N in search of the following winds.
With the two boys from Trinidad (Dangerous Dave and Holly B) trawling the oceans for fish, we caught a 45lb wahoo amongst others and had fresh fish for dinner on more than one occasion.
The large symmetrical spinnaker did it's job and pulled the yacht along at upto 14 knots regularly. This was a great help against our main rivals Emika which is a Swan 62. Top speed for the trip was 15.1 knots, sailing downwind in 35knots of wind poled out.
We crossed the finish line 3rd on the water behind the 95ft Leopard of London and an 82ft Farr Nauta and hence were first yacht into the marina. 15.5 days for the crossing was long, but considering the light winds we were delighted. We beat Luskentyre by over 2 days and were first Oyster in.
A first crossing for some, more for others but all of us were impressed by the changeable weather in the Atlantic, coupled with the sights of Dolphins, breaching whales and sunsets.
Thiswas a tradewind crossing with a difference.. It was never going to be a fast crossing, but our aim was to beat the Oyster 72 Luskentyre to St Lucia. We got a great start being in the first 10% of yachts over the line (not bad when there are over 200 starting!) but the wind rapidly died before blowing 25 knots from the SW. Unfortunately, gear failure put us back into Las Palmas losing around 8 hrs on the opposition, but determined to give it a shot we left following the repair.
Heading south was the key to getting into the trades early. Whilst many yachts went to the Cape Verde's to fuel up, we passed 20nm to the west of them still going south to 14N in search of the following winds.
With the two boys from Trinidad (Dangerous Dave and Holly B) trawling the oceans for fish, we caught a 45lb wahoo amongst others and had fresh fish for dinner on more than one occasion.
The large symmetrical spinnaker did it's job and pulled the yacht along at upto 14 knots regularly. This was a great help against our main rivals Emika which is a Swan 62. Top speed for the trip was 15.1 knots, sailing downwind in 35knots of wind poled out.
We crossed the finish line 3rd on the water behind the 95ft Leopard of London and an 82ft Farr Nauta and hence were first yacht into the marina. 15.5 days for the crossing was long, but considering the light winds we were delighted. We beat Luskentyre by over 2 days and were first Oyster in.
A first crossing for some, more for others but all of us were impressed by the changeable weather in the Atlantic, coupled with the sights of Dolphins, breaching whales and sunsets.
ARC 2007
This was a voyage we had all been looking forward to: a lightweight yacht and good trade winds forecast. We departed Gran Canaria at the start of the ARC taking it "easy", reefed down and poled out to find we reached 17.8knots within a couple of hours of the start! Unfortunately, we never beat this top speed during the remainder of the voyage but were very pleased with such good speeds early on in the voyage.
The first half of the trip was stunning sailing averaging over 240nm days with a mixture of spinnakers and poled out headsail. The seven crew adapted to life onboard quickly and within a few days we found ourselves in the first four on the water. With the wind going light towards the end and with the race rules permitting us to use our engine we found ourselves coming in 1st to St Lucia with a lead of over 12hours on the 2nd yacht, with us finishing the course in 12 days 1hr and 15mins. We were all really pleased with the result!
This was a voyage we had all been looking forward to: a lightweight yacht and good trade winds forecast. We departed Gran Canaria at the start of the ARC taking it "easy", reefed down and poled out to find we reached 17.8knots within a couple of hours of the start! Unfortunately, we never beat this top speed during the remainder of the voyage but were very pleased with such good speeds early on in the voyage.
The first half of the trip was stunning sailing averaging over 240nm days with a mixture of spinnakers and poled out headsail. The seven crew adapted to life onboard quickly and within a few days we found ourselves in the first four on the water. With the wind going light towards the end and with the race rules permitting us to use our engine we found ourselves coming in 1st to St Lucia with a lead of over 12hours on the 2nd yacht, with us finishing the course in 12 days 1hr and 15mins. We were all really pleased with the result!
