The ARC has always been a family affair, with cruisers from all backgrounds coming together for this annual transatlantic migration. Typically each year the ARC has around 20 boats sailing with children aboard, often using the rally as a launch-pad for a year of live-aboard cruising. Families are such an integral part of the rally that the ARC has now become a generational event. The 2012 edition saw two “ARC kids”, veterans from 1986 and 1991, back again sailing their own boats, and in one case with his children.
ARC 2013 is maintaining the tradition and has 28 young sailors under 16 taking part. Each year most “family boats” are docked together before the start, helping build friendships between the families, and the special children’s programme gives parents some time-off to help prepare their boats.
There are certain logistical issues involved in taking older children and teenagers out of school to go sailing for a year or more and the ARC boats are coping in different ways. For example on board Starship, an Austrian boat, the eldest boy, Florian (13) is taught by his grandmother, while his mother supervises the schooling of the two younger children (Lukas, 10 and Katharina, 9 ). Each day the kids onboard have 3 hours of lessons, but they have been promised that can enjoy some ‘school holidays’ when they get to the Caribbean if they work hard. However, in terms of languages, there is not much left to learn for the children on Starship, especially Florian, speaking German almost fluently, good English and adequate Spanish.
On Antares, a Swiss yacht, they also have ‘school’ everyday but Sarah, Muriel and Laura (9, 12, 13) are more interested in understanding everything that happens on board their boat. So while the ARC Safety Check was taking place they sat with big eyes and even bigger ears, in order to avoid missing anything. By happy coincidence, Antares met the American yacht Edelweiss in Helgoland. Mason Read (11) and Lyell Read (13), on board Edelweiss and the three girls from Antares soon became fast friends and have met up in many ports on the way to Las Palmas.
Sven Hecker from Cologne and his family onboard Heckogecko have taken a year out to sail across the Atlantic. His children are 3 and 9 years old. The older son Jenne is homeschooling using the German Distance Learning Programme, which will qualify him for high school when he returns to Germany. It costs over €300 per month which is quite expensive but Sven says: "I give so much money for the boat and repair. So it is only fair that I invest in the future of my son, so he has the opportunity to see as much as possible of the world."
The issue of education is also a worry for the parents of the younger children and Stephan Kobusch (whose son, Fynn is only 2 years old) has already spoken with the other boats about how to handle the German policy of compulsory education for its citizens as he is planning on sailing for many years. One of the great things about sailing with a rally like the ARC is the opportunity to discuss the practicalities of cruising with a variety of different sailors who have overcome similar challenges themselves and share lots of advice.
Almost all of the children have already met at the Family BBQ earlier this week and at the ARC Beach party today. Next week all of the children aged 6-16 can take part in the ARC Children’s Club where they can take trips, play games and learn dinghy sailing.