Yachting World May 2020

We have all been living in a strange and frightening world recently, but eventually our pandemic nightmare will end and we will emerge on the other side. All storms end. Meanwhile, the breezes are still blowing, the sea blue-green and unchanged, and the islands and bays peaceful as ever. If sailing away and spending time on board exploring more of the world is your dream, perhaps this is a good time to focus on that. What kind of yacht would you need, how would you equip it, what life changes could you make to bring that goal closer? And then, where would you go? This month, we bring you some real-life examples of couples who have decided on a leaving date and are on the pathway to cruising freedom. Their boats and…

We have all been living in a strange and frightening world recently, but eventually our pandemic nightmare will end and we will emerge on the other side. All storms end. Meanwhile, the breezes are still blowing, the sea blue-green and unchanged, and the islands and bays peaceful as ever. If sailing away and spending time on board exploring more of the world is your dream, perhaps this is a good time to focus on that. What kind of yacht would you need, how would you equip it, what life changes could you make to bring that goal closer? And then, where would you go? This month, we bring you some real-life examples of couples who have decided on a leaving date and are on the pathway to cruising freedom. Their…

Sailing’s 2020 season closed BOAT SHOWS, RACES, CLUB EVENTS AND RALLIES ALIKE ALL CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19 Cancelled or postponed – almost every sailing event this summer has been shelved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From local club events to the America’s Cup World Series, and everything in between including organised regattas and cruises – even the Olympics – has been called off. One by one, organisers faced the inevitable and binned months and, in some cases, years of planning to stand events down. Club racing at every level was abandoned in March and boat shows were cancelled. The cancellation of events including the TP52 Super Series, SailGP, Antigua Sailing Week, ARC Portugal and many others meant boat owners and organisers had to leave their yachts in places they were no longer able…

Sailing’s 2020 season closed BOAT SHOWS, RACES, CLUB EVENTS AND RALLIES ALIKE ALL CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19 Cancelled or postponed – almost every sailing event this summer has been shelved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From local club events to the America’s Cup World Series, and everything in between including organised regattas and cruises – even the Olympics – has been called off. One by one, organisers faced the inevitable and binned months and, in some cases, years of planning to stand events down. Club racing at every level was abandoned in March and boat shows were cancelled. The cancellation of events including the TP52 Super Series, SailGP, Antigua Sailing Week, ARC Portugal and many others meant boat owners and organisers had to leave their yachts in places they were…

Pushing off from the Galapagos Islands on 4 March, COVID-19 was only starting to affect Europe. The first villages were being quarantined in Italy, and a handful of cases were emerging in the UK. it was a blip on the news, and did nothing to rock our happy World ARC fleet. The trickles of news that came through at first while we were at sea were largely sanitised: many of our crew make it clear that they don’t want news from home – there is nothing we can do. As the situation deteriorated more rapidly, the view from home was ‘The world has gone mad; enjoy your blissful ignorance while you can.’ Our first updates concerned small changes to entry protocol, but the expectation was still to be able to clear into…

It was not just organised events that were hit by border restrictions being imposed around the world in March. Unknown but sizeable numbers of independent cruisers were at sea and suddenly found themselves in danger of becoming refugees. Among them were the 30 crews taking part in the World ARC rally, who were on passage on the rally’s longest leg, 3,000 miles between the Galapagos Islands and the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. (See Dan Bower’s account, above.) But before they could arrive French Polynesia had sealed its borders and organisers in Cowes were faced with the task of persuading the French Polynesia High Commission to allow the rally entry. Some yachts made landfall on the island of Nuka Hiva, Marquesas, while others continued onwards for 700 miles to Pape’ete, Tahiti, or…