Published 15 years ago, updated 5 years ago

World ARC, the round the world yacht rally, is gearing up for another circumnavigation with the announcement today by organizers World Cruising Club that the entry list has opened for the 2012 edition of this popular cruising rally. Billed as an adventure of a lifetime, World ARC 2012 will leave the Caribbean in January 2012, cruising across the World’s great oceans on a circumnavigation of the globe, returning to the Caribbean 16 months later. World Cruising Club Director Andrew Bishop said, “World ARC is well established on the cruising calendar and we have planned long and hard to ensure its success. A significant improvement for 2012 will be the inclusion of automatic satellite tracking for all yachts in the rally, using Yellowbrick Iridium Trackers. This will enhance safety on the rally since we will be able to keep a close watch on any of the yachts in the event of an emergency at sea.”

World ARC will visit some of the World’s best cruising destinations.

Ever since World Cruising first announced the concept for the World ARC Rally, there has been a continual stream of international inquiries coming into the WCC Cowes-based office. World Cruising really has created the adventure of a lifetime, with careful planning and using up-to-date routing information and the skills acquired over 25 years of running ocean sailing events. Twenty-nine yachts from 13 nations are participating in the 2010 Rally, which set off from St. Lucia back in January. Since then they have cruised into the Pacific via the Panama Canal, down to Ecuador and on to the Galapagos Islands and the Marquesas. During April and May, they cruised through the Marquesas, Tuamotos and Society Islands before departing from Bora Bora in mid-May heading towards the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, and Vanuatu. Then it’s across to Mackay, Australia and 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 calls at the remote islands of Cocos-Keeling to reach Mauritius in October. Avoiding the dangerous Red Sea region, the route crosses the southern Indian Ocean via the French island of Reunion, to arrive in South Africa at Richards Bay, cruising slowly southwards to be in Cape Town for Christmas 2012. In January 2013 the fleet heads out from Cape Town to Brazil, via the tiny mid-Atlantic island of St. Helena. From Salvador de Bahia, where crews can enjoy the frenetic sights and sounds of Carnival Brazilian style, the route cruises north along the coast to Recife. Late April sees yachts back in the Caribbean and they will have sailed approximately 25,000 nautical miles.

The daily logs being uploaded onto the World ARC website provide terrific insights into the many and varied highlights and the occasional low as participants share their experiences; see www.worldcruising.com/worldarc2010

You can read more and find out how to enter World ARC 2012 by logging on to World Cruising Club’s website www.worldcruising.com/worldarc.aspx  [BROKEN LINK]

or contact World Cruising Club on: +44 (0)1983 296060.