ATLANTIC CROSSING KIT
From Starlink to tradewind sails, first aid and cooking, Ali Wood reports on new and traditional gear for transatlantic sailors
The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), and its sister event the ARC+, is the ultimate gear test –often to destruction –of everything from sails to self-steering, cookers, communications and electronics.
I first visited St Lucia in 2005, and have since covered the event five times. While crews are inevitably exhausted when I meet them on the docks, so is their kit.
Running equipment day and night for three weeks in Atlantic swells and squalls, often with tired and inexperienced operators, is a great way to test its limitations, not to mention the problemsolving nous of the crew–but more of that in May’s edition of Practical Boat Owner!
Comms
While the ARC sails direct from Gran Canaria to St Lucia, the ARC+ has a stopover in Mindelo, Cape Verde, which for some boats is a fixing frenzy, and for others an opportunity to collect the replacement parts they ordered at sea.
Yes, that’s right, ‘at sea’. Online shopping definitely didn’t feature back in 2005 –when the cost of horrendously slow data was up to £3 a minute.
COMMUNICATIONS Distress calling Weather apps Radar AIS DSC/VHF radio SSB radio Starlink Iridium
SAFETY Safety at night MOB recovery Danbuoys Throwing lines
LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS Cooking Watermakers Refrigeration Batteries Wind, sun and hydro power Generators Fuel
EMERGENCY KIT First aid Medication Seasickness Dive equipment
STEERING Autopilot Hydrovane Windvane
Thanks to high-speed internet Starlink, one boat on 2023’s ARC+ managed to order a new forestay and have someone fly it to Cape Verde in time for their arrival.
“Starlink was brilliant,” says Claire Wallace of Discovery 58, Aqualuna. “We didn’t have any drop in quality, it’s honestly better than our wifi at home.”
Claire was sailing double-handed with her husband Malcolm when their second forestay snapped following a halyard wrap. Immediately, they alerted ARC+ cruisers on the WhatsApp group, who stood by. They then spoke to John Eustace, build manager at Discovery Yachts, who flew out with new rigging disguised in his luggage as a windsurfer!
Of the 96 boats taking part in last year’s ARC+ rally, 12% were fitted with Starlink, which uses low-orbiting satellites installed by Elon Musk’s firm SpaceX.
The rally’s first Lebanese entrant, Toni Salame on board Oyster 575 Ahlam, used Starlink to receive weather data. His son, Nicholas, even h
