World Cruising Club
eNews
February 2022
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Greetings!
There is a mood of ‘cautious optimism’ amongst the cruising community now as countries around the world adapt to living with COVID and travel is once again possible. However, there are still barriers and testing requirements to navigate so we advise you to check and plan your route well in advance of departure. Noonsite.com is the best place to keep updated on entry requirements for worldwide sailing destinations. Visit their global update page to start your planning today.
Our ARC Bluewater Preparations Seminars will guide and help you on the way to your own cruising adventures; the 2022 programme is now open for registration. Attendance is free for this unique online event which brings together expert advice, live presentations and carefully selected playlists to help you make the most of the information on offer.
World Cruising Club has a busy programme of rallies from May through to January. If you are hoping to join us for the ARC in the 2022/23 season, the new January route is now an established event on our calendar with spaces available. See the rally round-up below. We are also looking for enthusiastic people to join our team of ARC Yellowshirts to assist with our events in late 2022 and 2023. So if you enjoy travel, meeting other sailors and are a good organiser, then get in touch via the reply form below.
We look forward to sharing with you during this coming year and wish everyone happy, healthy and safe sailing in 2022.
Happy Sailing!
Jeremy Wyatt
World Cruising Club
T: +44 (0) 1983 296060
Skype: wccmail
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Online Seminars this Spring |
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ARC Bluewater Preparations, our programme of seminars and expert advice sessions, will be offered online again during February and March. These sessions are open to all, whether you are just beginning to dream about your offshore adventure, or in the final stages of preparing to sail away, you’ll find plenty of information from fellow cruisers and our assembled experts covering a multitude of tips for your bluewater preparations. By hosting the programme online, we can reach far more cruisers in countries around the world than we can hope to at a physical event. However, we appreciate that with work commitments and different time zones, even an online seminar won’t suit everyone. So, for those unable to join the sessions live, if you register in advance for the programme, you will also be sent the ‘watch again’ links, have access to the playlists and other published materials. |
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ARC Bluewater Preparations Seminar: Feb/March |
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Free online seminar programme intended to help you get your boat and crew ready for bluewater sailing this year. Whilst focused for those sailing in the ARC transatlantic routes, the information will assist those aiming for World ARC or other bluewater cruising in the future. By registering for ARC Bluewater Preparations, you will get access to the exclusive seminar website with carefully selected video playlists; featured recorded seminars and other supporting materials. Live seminars and expert question and answer sessions will be held each weekend during February and March on selected topics relevant to fitting out and preparing an offshore cruising boat, with recording released weekly. |
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Australia 2022 – optimism for September Start
There are encouraging signs that Australia’s maritime borders will open sufficiently by late summer to allow the rally to proceed as planned from Darwin in September this year. The route continues across the Indian Ocean, via South Africa and Brazil to finish in the Caribbean in April 2023. There are some spaces available on the rally for new joiners, click below to register your interest.
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Split Fleet for World ARC in 2023
The 2023 edition of the rally will have two Caribbean starts in 2023 – the first in early January will be for circumnavigators, boats expecting to complete their round the world voyage in a single circuit of 15 months from the Caribbean to the Caribbean. The second group, the World ARC Pacific fleet, will set off from the Caribbean in mid-February following a similar route through Panama and across the central Pacific islands finishing in late summer in Fiji, Vanuatu or Australia with greater flexibility for onward cruising to New Zealand or northwards to the Solomons. The 2023 routes are both currently fully subscribed, but we are accepting boats onto a waitlist in expectation of confirmed spaces becoming available soon.
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2024 on course for May Opening
Look out for the launch of World ARC 2024 which is due to open in May this year. Interest is likely to be strong again, so click make sure your register your interest and we will send you the information pack as soon as it is published.
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Entries Now Open
Start: 7 May 2022 from St Maarten
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Sets off from St Maarten at the northern end of the Caribbean Leeward Islands in early May, crossing via Bermuda and the Azores to Europe. Boats can also join from Bermuda, with a supported leg offered to boats heading out from the US east coast to meet the fleet in Bermuda. Those heading to the US east coast can also join for the leg to Bermuda with tracking and support offered onward to the US.
Limited places are still available, subject to boat size.
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Fully booked
Start: 5 June 2022 from Plymouth, UK
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It is a ‘full house’ for the 2022 edition of our trans-Biscay rally in June so start planning for next year. Registration opens in September. Don’t miss the boat next summer, register your interest now to receive the 2023 information pack. |
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Entries Now Open - deadline 31/03/2022
Start: 5 July 2022 from Rostock, Germany
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Our exploration of Europe’s East Sea heads out from Warnemünde (Rostock) on Germany’s Baltic coast in July, visiting Denmark, Estonia, Russia, Finland and Sweden in the 6-week duration cruise. Russia’s maritime borders are still closed, but our contacts in St Petersburg are optimistic that visitors will be permitted in time for the summer season, although an alternative itinerary is ready, if we need to amend the route. Limited places are still available for this year’s cruise. The closing date for applications is 31/03/2022. |
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November to January – 3 ARC Transatlantic Routes |
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ARC January is now established as a regular event on our calendar following this year’s inaugural rally which set off from Las Palmas in early January and is now making landfall in Saint Lucia. The later departure date gives skippers more time to get boats ready and in position, especially useful for new boats. The 2023 edition is already open for registration. |
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ARC+ Cape Verde for 2022 is fully subscribed and we have also closed the waitlist. Registration for the 2023 edition of this popular transatlantic route which crosses via Cape Verde to Grenada opens in September.
ARC (November) the original rally route, and still the most popular of all our events is full for the November 2022 edition, but we are still accepting smaller monohulls on to our waitlist. We know from previous years that plans change, especially with the prospect of an immovable departure date, so we anticipate some entries being cancelled during the spring and early summer. Registration for the 2023 November routes will open in September this year.
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Join our Team - Yellowshirts Wanted! |
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Looking ahead this year with another full programme in November though to January with ARC+, ARC and ARC January plus the restart of World ARC in 2023 we are seeking to recruit new temporary staff to help build our event staff teams during the later part of 2022 and into 2023. If you are hardworking, enthusiastic, adventurous, happy to travel and flexible about taking time off to join us then we would like to hear from you! Whilst not actively recruiting just yet we are planning ahead for this winter, and are building up our list of contacts who would enjoy the challenge of working with us to help deliver our events. There are a variety of roles for up to 3 months with the ARC routes and 6 to 12 months for World ARC into 2023.
Start by telling us a little about yourself and why you want to be an ARC yellowshirt via this brief online form - see the link below:
t inserting phrases lie "for a limited time only" or "only 7 remaining!"
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Talk to the Safety Experts |
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Ocean Safety, leading specialist in the worldwide supply, distribution, service and hire of marine safety equipment, is the longstanding safety partner to the World Cruising Club.
Ocean Safety have over 20 years of experience and consider themselves as marine lifesaving innovators, imparting safety advice and representing some of the world’s leading brands in safety and survival to ensure your safety whilst out on the water.
Ocean Safety’s support includes advice for WCC yacht owners and crews when equipping their yachts for long distance voyages and understanding how to operate their safety equipment.
As part of the partnership, Ocean Safety experts regularly take part in WCC’s seminars and events, and also offer WCC members a preferential rate on a selection of safety equipment that can be purchased directly via our head office (contact details below).
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Introducing Skylink (Iridium Certus 100) |
Mailsail are excited to announce the launch of Skylink – the all new Certus 100 terminal from Blue Sky Networks!
At 88 Kbit/s, the Skylink is significantly faster that the older ‘dial-up’ Iridium phones (such as the Iridium GO! and 9555/9575 phones which all operate at 2Kbit/s), and has excellent voice quality.
The increase in speed means that the Skylink is far more capable and flexible than the Iridium’s older handheld devices and offers something closer to ‘modern’ internet access, enabling weather applications, messaging applications such as WhatsApp and the downloading of attachments.
Key features:
- Regular (and distress) voice calls
- Receiving emails (including with attachments)
- Full sized GRIB Weather downloads (eg, access Windy from your phone)
- Receiving photos and small videos
- WhatsApp & social media
- (Light) Internet browsing
- Compact and portable - not much larger than a paperback book
- Integral 4G cellular router
- Integral smart firewalling
The Skylink comes with an external marine antenna and cable for the satellite element of the terminal. A number of additional adapters are available to purchase separately – such us a POTS adapter, allowing you to connect a regular BT style home phone for making satellite calls if desired (this is not required though, as you can also use a VoIP - voice over IP - application on your mobile phone to place calls via the Skylink).
Limited stock available! Contact Mailasail now for more details:
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BLUEWATER CRUISER OF THE MONTH
Discovery 58, AQUALUNA
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Discovery 58, AQUALUNA was the first of this sisterhood to hit the water and was built for very experienced bluewater cruising owners. Launched in 2015, she then headed straight off on the 2015 ARC where she shone, coming 2nd in her class. Her owners knew what they wanted from her and hence unlike her later sisters she has a single wheel and slab reefing main as the best option for reliable, safe, 2 handed ocean crossing. Her sail setup is easily handled from electric winches in the cockpit. Up forward she has a self-tacking jib and large genoa, all easily handled from the cockpit. Primarily sailed by a couple proving how easily handled she is.
AQUALUNA of course has the trademark Discovery deck saloon windows so light floods into the saloon and bounces off her lovely maple interior. With 45% extra volume in comparison to the Discovery 55, she has a fantastic amount of space down below. A very well kitted out galley runs aft leading to the palatial aft owner’s cabin, where you will certainly have room for everything! Your guests will be in equal comfort with a large VIP cabin forward and useful upper and lower bunk cabin to port. It is clear to see from her specification that these owners have been there and done it before in their Discovery 55. She has been well cared for and is now ready and raring to go again.
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Need Crew for your Offshore Adventures? |
Connect now with hundreds of new crewmates, via OceanCrewLink.com, World Cruising Club’s crew connect service. The site is a network of over 6,000 active sailors, ranging from qualified captains and experienced ‘old salts’ to keen young sailors eager to gain offshore experience. As a skipper looking for crew, add your ‘sailing opportunity’ and have it shared with the network allowing interested crew to reach out to you. As the preferred crew connect website for all ARC rallies, skippers can highlight their ARC rally entry making it easier for crew to match profiles. Volunteer crew can add their own profiles sharing qualifications and experience, to join the network. |
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Keep up to date with Noonsite |
More than ever, it is important to keep up to date with the restrictions in place in the countries and regions you may intend to visit by boat. All nations around the world now have protocols in place for visiting yachts, evolving as the pandemic situation in each region, or on each island changes. Often government announcements regarding restrictions take time to filter to officials in port, and some countries are encouraging regional enforcement in ‘hotspot’ areas which can add further confusion.
Noonsite continues to update the detailed status list of countries and their protocols for accepting cruising vessels. Additionally, first-hand reports from cruisers share experiences of those currently on board their boats. For this Caribbean season, a useful summary of Caribbean Protocols is regularly updated, and further details can be found in the “Biosecurity” section of each country’s dedicated page. Subscribe for free to the monthly news round-up and get important updates and fascinating cruising reports to your inbox.
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