Saint Lucians joined hands with international sailors on Sunday, November 23, as more than 100 boats departed Las Palmas de Gran Canaria bound for Rodney Bay Marina.
The annual Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) once again links communities across the ocean, with this year’s flotilla in Castries symbolically mirroring the transatlantic start. Now in its 40th edition, the ARC continues to celebrate seamanship as well as friendships and cultural exchange over four decades.
On Sunday, the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority (SLTA) partnered with Events Saint Lucia and World Cruising Club (WCC) for the annual flotilla here, synchronised with the departure of the boats in Las Palmas.
Before the flotilla set sail, a brief ceremony acknowledged the support of sponsors and media partners.
Peta Cozier of the WCC, organisers of the ARC, said she has been with the organisation for a decade and is excited every year on this day.
“This is the culmination of hard work, preparation, getting ready weeks, months, of getting their boats ready to set sail 2,700 nautical miles to reach our destination of Saint Lucia,” Cozier said.
“This year, it’s the 40th edition and we are excited about what we can do. So we have 148 boats that have set sail today. Of that, we have three categories…the cruising division, the multi-hull division and we have the IRC racing division,” she pointed out.
Cozier further explained that the IRC racing division is the only category where boats rely on the ocean winds and not their engines. About 900 participants, ranging from ages 6 to 80, from eight different countries, she says, make up the 148 participating vessels.
“This is a wonderful networking, team building global network that inspires lifelong friendships, meeting new people, getting new ideas moving on. When they reach here, they have Saint Lucians giving them the joy, the fun and the camaraderie of this island,” Cozier added.
CEO of the SLTA Louis Lewis stated that the ARC was a very important event for the Authority as it was the signature event organised for the yachting sector.
“But what I’m really excited about is the fact that the flotilla is coming back. It’s coming back to the large participation that we had known it for, and we have seen a number of agencies and some sponsors coming to the symbolic start of this important transatlantic race,” Lewis said.
The CEO went on to indicate that while there are 900 participants, their friends and relatives will join them in Saint Lucia when they arrive.
“We have an interesting itinerary that will characterise the flow of the events from the time the first boat comes to the time the last boat arrives…we have an interesting lineup of activities for them to participate in and of course, to showcase what we have,” Lewis said.
Before the departure of the flotilla, Dexter Percil, SLTA director of global marketing, thanked the many sponsors and the media, whom he said he preferred to describe as partners. Among them: IGY Rodney Bay Marina, Community Tourism Agency, Heineken Saint Lucia (with Piton Beer), the Wave, Bank of Saint Lucia, Digicel, SIXT Car Rental, SOL, Events Saint Lucia, Massy Saint Lucia and Angostura.
The flotilla comprising teams from Sol, the CTA, SLTA, BOSL, the media and Rotary, later set sail from the IGY Rodney Bay Marina to the Castries Harbour and back.
It will take 14 to 21 days for an average yacht to complete the journey, and the first boat is expected to arrive in Saint Lucia by the first week of December.
