On the last ARC, the Neel 45 dominated. But looking at the account of this transat, it seems that life aboard a cruising trimaran on the Atlantic remains a particularly pleasant moment:
The departure from Las Palmas went well, with 30 knots of wind on the quarter, and we quite quickly found ourselves among the leaders. The atmosphere aboard was perfect, everyone had their role, and Roger treated us to some tasty little dishes, with of course a little aperitif every evening to keep our spirits up… We even took the time to land a dolphin fish, which was a real treat for us, lasting several days.
As for the race, it was a great pleasure for us to see on the AIS the bigger boats with crews of 8 to 12 people all around us. The atmosphere between the competitors in this event was great, and we exchanged e-mails with some of the crews we had met before the start in Las Palmas.The sunsets, rainbows and starry nights amazed us, and we were very relaxed while hanging on to this pole position in the multihulls class which finally suited us perfectly well… We arrived at St Lucia during the night, after 13 days and 11 hours sailing, during which we covered 2,957 miles.
The second boat, the Outremer 51 ‘Wanderer’ arrived 6 hours after us, and helped by a very long ‘aperitif’, we told each other about our crossings. Our average speed on this crossing was close to 10 knots, and we set a speed record of 19.7 knots. Only the automatic pilot was able to do better, with a top speed of 20.5 knots… The ARC is a good event for sailors like us, conviviality is ever-present and many crews join to enjoy the supervision and follow-up by an organization with Anglo-Saxon rigor.
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