World ARC route announced

by Media services on 3 May 2006 World ARC, a new circumnavigation rally being run by the UK-based experts at World Cruising Club (WCC), has already attracted over 500 enquiries from across the UK, Europe and North America.

WCC has a proven track record having already successfully organised five round-the-world events, including the first-ever round-the-world cruising rally - Europa92, and having very capably taken over 3000 yachts across the Atlantic with the annual ARC Rally, now in its 21st year.

World ARC starts in the Caribbean in January 2008 to allow cruisers already in the region to join, or to sail across with the ARC.

Full details of the route and itinerary are now confirmed and available on the World ARC website at: www.worldcruising.com/worldarc/ . The official entry list will open in late May and the organisers are anticipating a quick take-up of bookings from cruisers around the world.

Andrew Bishop, Managing Director of World Cruising Club commented:

'We are delighted at the initial response to World ARC from the cruising fraternity in many countries, and are keen to provide them with the safest and most enjoyable round the world rally yet .'

The route and timing of the rally have been carefully chosen so as to benefit from optimum weather conditions by planning to be 'in the right place at the right time' and, at the same time, complete a circumnavigation in just over one year. Both the Pacific and the Indian Oceans will be crossed during the safest period and at the height of the favourable trade wind season. The route itself calls at some of the most attractive destinations in the world, some of which have never before been visited by an organised event.

The Rally avoids the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa owing to political unrest and a heightened security situation in the region.

The detailed itinerary will enable participants to plan crew changes and boat maintenance. During the rally, a multi-lingual World Cruising Team will be in each port to look after participants ashore, whilst a safety and communications net will operate on each ocean stage. Weather and routing advice will be provided, and the World ARC website will track yacht positions and display news, yacht logs and images to enable everyone to share in this great adventure.

The Itinerary
The route for World ARC is a mixture of open ocean stages, independent cruising and planned meetings along the route.

2008
Leaving from the Caribbean in January 2008, the fleet sails to Panama, where the Canal transit will be organised, and then into the Pacific Ocean. From Panama participants will visit Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, famed for their unique wildlife. There is plenty of time to cruise through the idyllic islands of the south Pacific, where such evocative names as Hiva Oa, the Tuamotos, Tahiti, Bora Bora, the Cook Islands, Nuie and Tonga, are on the route.

July 2008 sees the Rally reach Fiji in the western Pacific, before a short crossing to the exotic volcanic islands of Vanuatu, and then Cairns, Australia. World ARC will incorporate a cruise inside the Great Barrier Reef, before regrouping for the leg across the top of Australia to Darwin and the start of the Indian Ocean stage.

From Bali, the Rally will call at the remote islands of Cocos-Keeling and Chagos to reach Mauritius in October. Then on via the French island of Reunion, to arrive in South Africa at Richards Bay, cruising slowly southwards to be in Cape Town for Christmas 2008.

2009
January 2009 sees the Rally head out from Cape Town to Brazil, via the tiny mid-Atlantic island of St. Helena. From Salvador de Bahia, the route cruises north along the coast to Recife, where crews can enjoy the frenetic sights and sounds of Carnival Brazilian style. Late March sees yachts back in the Caribbean. Those heading home to Europe or the USA can enjoy some easy cruising north to Antigua, from where ARC Europe crosses the Atlantic in early May 2009.

Jimmy Cornell, the founder of World Cruising Club back in 1986, who has helped devise the World ARC route, comments:

'I am pleased to have worked with World Cruising Club on planning the World ARC route that will take participants to some of my favourite cruising destinations in the Pacific and Indian Oceans'.

'Having just completed a circumnavigation along the proposed route, I congratulate the organisers for choosing a most attractive itinerary that includes some of the best cruising destinations in the world.'

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