It’s only a race if we are winning

When we found Mareas and heard they were part of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers we were interested to learn what their $3000+ Cdn entrance fee got them. We had always "poo poo'd" the idea of paying to cross an ocean and being a part of an organized group. Graham spoke of his NARC group often with pride "Not the ARC".

A few things we were skeptics about was that we thought it would give Cruisers a false sense of security. At the end of the day you are on the ocean alone. You need to be self reliant, skilled and knowledgeable. If something was to go terribly wrong for an ARC boat or a NARC boat for that matter they would both be calling the same coast guard. We also didn't like that they left on a planned day without consideration of the weather. This struck us as odd since picking the right departure day was often half our battle. Lastly an organized large group which cost money to join is the exact opposite of "Perry Style"! ;-) Needless to say we joined The ARC with some trepidation.

We have learned now that the ARC really serves as "Cruiser Education". Many folks are just beginning their on water adventures and the workshops and safety rules and on board safety checks serve valuable learning that I am sure will return its value 10 fold over their cruising careers. The social activities leading up to departure allow everyone to quickly form close ties with people who they will most likely see on and off for the next few years in various anchorages, beach bbques and happy hours. They also allow them to feel a sense of community which I think is important when your new home has no fixed address. As far as self reliance on the ocean it is true for the most part we need to be self reliant but the ARC does provide daily position reports to the entire fleet and they include if anyone has issues. I guess I'd like to believe that if someone had problems the ARC could contact boats close by and see if any help could be provided. Might not be as easy if you weren't part of the ARC. The other factor not to be undervalued is how special they make this adventure seem. The send off and I'm sure the arrival are everything I always wanted in doing something so far out of my comfort zone.

Now all of that is great but the last factor makes it pretty damn cool, the ARC is basically a race for Cruisers. You should know that there are basically two kinds of sailors "Racers" and "Cruisers". Cruisers are the kind of people who reef down at night for comfort and err on the low risk side of the equation for most decisions. The ARC allows us all to informally race across the Atlantic. Leading up to departure most folks are saying things like, "We are going to take it easy", "We aren't racing", "Comfort will be winning".

Then on about day 5 as sea legs return and a bit of boredom sets in the crew starts to pay more attention to the position reports downloaded each day at noon via satellite. Boats are divided into divisions and we are part of the "Multihull Under 48 feet" group. Once we see that we are in the top three in our division suddenly we are racing ;-). Out comes the paper chart and we are plotting our position and placing sticky notes of our close competitors. Oh what fun. It's pretty hard not to get into it given crossing this ocean is our primary focus and conversation topic.

We are now about 9 days away. I look forward to checking out the YB Racer app once we arrive and see how it all looked as we crossed together.

Would be pretty cool to finish in the top five for our division but if we don't it won't matter because we weren't racing anyways ;-).