Forty years ago, ARC was created to help sailors experience an ocean crossing, begin a circumnavigation, or safely relocate their yacht from Europe to the Caribbean, and it has since grown into one of the World Cruising Club’s signature offshore sailing events, attracting participants from around the globe — including RQYS! In the ‘40th ARC’ The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) completed its 40th anniversary crossing in late 2025 and RQYS Member Tam Faragher reports on his crewing aboard ‘Cattiba’ Each November, yachts of every shape and size gather in the Canary Islands, off the northwest coast of Africa, preparing for one of sailing’s great adventures: an Atlantic crossing to the Caribbean on the northeast trade winds. The Great Circle distance is about 2,600 nautical miles but, after gybing and routing due to the weather, most boats sail well over 3,000 miles. The trade winds earned their name centuries ago when square-rigged merchant ships depended on them to transport goods across the Atlantic. Today they transport dreams. This year marked the 40th ARC since the original rally was compiled by legendary Jimmy Cornell, and we entered my new 52-foot Outremer catamaran Cattiba, crewed by fellow Squadron members Bronwyn Buck, Neil Everson, John Strickland, and Rob and Annabel Buchanan. Cattiba was delivered at the factory in La Grande-Motte, France, in May last year and, after we completed a brief shake-down trip followed by some intense warranty maintenance, we sailed from the Mediterranean to the Canary Islands to join the ARC in November 2025. Regular communications led up to the Cruise, including a virtual safety inspection ahead of the detailed one carried out before the rally began. The two weeks before, a multitude of training courses were provided by experienced sailors who had done it all before. Provisioning, sailing short-handed, weather routing, safety at sea (which was a mandatory requirement), heavy weather sailing, plus a daily social calendar kept the time full. A sea of “yellow shirts” — ARC representatives — was available to answer any questions and, invariably, information was based on their own multiple crossings. This gave comfort to the broad range of experience present: from novice to professional! START FINISH Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Rodney Bay St Lucia MAP: AdobeStock AI-amended; finessed and completed by Matthew Tesch ARC Feature Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Yearbook Mainsheet 2026 65
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