Yesterday at 19:14 UTC, the 27-metre ocean-going yacht "Rambler 88" crossed the finish line in Rodney Bay in the north of the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia. The previous Sunday, she and 218 other yachts had started as part of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers took off from Las Palmas di Gran Canaria at midday.
On the way to the Caribbean, the 18-strong crew chose a route that was partly very northerly. Although this meant a diversion of a good 300 nautical miles, they benefited from much better wind conditions than on the traditional southern route.
The "Rambler 88" travelled for exactly 8 days, 6 hours, 29 minutes and 15 seconds. This meant she beat the ARC record set by VO65 "Team Brunel" only a year earlier by another 1 hour, 10 minutes and 15 seconds.
In addition to a number of sailing professionals, including owner George David and famous names such as Brad Butterworth, Brad Jackson, Erle Williams, Simon Daubney, Jan Dekker and Andrew Cape as navigator, there were also paying guests on board the yacht. They had paid almost 6000 euros for the passage.
The "Rambler 88" even finished ahead of the fastest boat in the ARCplus flotilla, the "Spirit", a Lagoon 450 catamaran - even though the ARCplus boats were four days ahead of the regular ARC sailors and, as they started from Cape Verde, had a good 500 nautical miles shorter route.
When the champagne corks were already popping on board the "Rambler 88", the majority of the ARC yachts still had a good half of the journey ahead of them. If the trade winds don't pick up significantly on the southern route, the last of them may not reach Saint Lucia until after Christmas.
Pascal Schürmann
Editor YACHT
