The Italians were the first of the almost 100 yachts taking part in this year's "ARC plus" to cross the line in Grand Anse in the south-west of the Caribbean island. Shortly afterwards, they were greeted with rum punch by employees of Camper & Nicholsons Port Louis Marina and the "Yellow Shirts", the staff of the World Cruising Club, in the coastal town of St George's.
Video from on board the "Nessum Dorma":
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The "Nessun Dorma" has logged 2,335 nautical miles since its departure from Mindelo in Cape Verde on 17 November. This corresponds to an average speed of over eight knots.
Five hours later, the high-performance catamaran "Mongoose", sailing under the US flag, reached the finish line. The two-hull Marsaudon ORC 50 had previously been considered the hot favourite for the line honours. However, skipper Christopher Murray apparently sailed one too many loops on the transatlantic passage, and in the end the US team had over 60 nautical miles more in its wake than the Italians.
After rather tough conditions on the first ARC-plus leg from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Mindelo, the second leg of the rally to the Caribbean was a tactical and navigational battle for the best breeze. "Nessun Dorma" took the lead early on, and despite strong competition in the form of multihulls, which on paper were faster, Andrea Neri's team was able to maintain its initial lead.
More about the ARC:
Five more catamarans are expected to arrive in Grenada over the next few hours, all of them Outremer-type boats between 51 and 55 feet in length. They will be followed by the majority of monohulls and moderate cruising catamarans. For their crews, it is generally not about a fast, but a safe and comfortable passage across the Atlantic. The last of the field still have almost 1,000 nautical miles to go. They will not reach their destination until sometime next week.
So there is still plenty of time to savour sailing in almost perfect trade wind conditions with sunshine, blue seas and moderate to light winds. This applies not only to the crews of the "ARC plus", but also to the participants in the regular Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, which has just under 160 boats. It started on 19 November from Las Palmas on a direct route to the Caribbean and also had to take a far southerly course. The leading boats still have around 700 nautical miles to go to the finish line, which is located in Rodney Bay in the north of Saint Lucia.
Impressions from the start of ARC 2023
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Pascal Schürmann
Editor YACHT
