Food for thought in the ARC racing division

18 November 2015

The ARC has always been about the challenge of an Atlantic crossing, whether for first timers in a family cruising boat, or experienced sailors pushing for a personal best crossing time on a racing yacht.

Although originally solely a fun rally for cruising boats, within a few years of the first ARC in 1986, it became apparent that many crews wanted to compete rather than simply cruise across the ocean. In 1989, a racing division was introduced to the ARC to enable anyone wishing to race to pit their skills against likeminded sailors. Since then, racers have made up around 15% of the fleet, competing using the IRC rating system.

Holding true to the spirit of the ARC, the racing division is very much a Corinthian event, offering club level racing on a transatlantic course and as such attracts a broad range of boats and crews. Crews of charter guests on a “bucket list” race experience, get the chance to sail against professional crews, including veterans of the Volvo Ocean Race, and Olympic sailors, on this downwind ocean course.

 
  Photo: B&G
Lining up in the ARC Racing Division in 2015, the Dutch Team Brunel has just raced around the world with the Volvo Ocean Race, achieving second place overall. A great result for Gerd-Jan Poortman who has three Volvo Ocean Races under his belt and who will skipper Team Brunel in the ARC Racing Division. He will be joined by fellow ‘pro’ Volvo sailors, Jens Dolmer and Rokas Milevicius.

There will be 15 crew on board the one-design VO65 for the ARC and as it’s a pure racing boat, there’s no freezer on board and no proper cooking stove, but there will be some fresh fruits for the first few days! The boat’s owner and some of his good friends will make up the less experienced crew and enjoy typical race-boat fodder, so it’ll be a diet of freeze-dried food for the crossing.

“We decided to do the ARC as a race rather than just sail across as a delivery trip to our Caribbean regatta season. It will more motivational for the crew, but we are not going to push the boat as we did during the Volvo Ocean Race. It’s just a fun race for us as there’s no competition as such. We are expecting quite light conditions for start and we hope to complete the race in not more than a week, but it all depends on the weather. We are really looking forward to it,” says Tomas Ivanauskas who is from Lithuania.

Team Brunel will compete with the same boat in the 2017/18 Volvo Ocean Race.

According to Kent King, the Kiwi skipper of the 1973 classic ketch El Oro in the ARC Racing Division, “El Oro is a very special boat, once owned by Baron Marcel Bich of America’s Cup fame. The boat is a cruising version of Kriter, his Whitbread Round the World Race yacht.”

The current owner is Australia, Tim Wilson, a retired endoscopic surgeon and a real yachting enthusiast who has several other race boats in Sydney, including Cordelia, a Ben Lexon-designed Maxi and a new Rindle 39. Tim bought El Oro in 2008 and sailed to Burma where its seven layers of cold-moulded mahogany hull and its recycled teak decking were made from old houses that were pulled down in Burma. The boat underwent a two-year restoration in Rangoon before being shipped to Europe where she cruised the Baltic prior to joining the ARC in Las Palmas.

There will be 10 experienced crew, mainly from Australia and friends of the owner. The youngest is Harry West, a 16ft Skiff Sydney sailor who is celebrating his 21st birthday during the crossing: “This will be the longest race I’ve ever done and I’m looking forward to getting across the ocean, to building some miles and to learning a lot.”

El Oro who won her division in the Raja Muda, has also competed in the China Sea Race and campaigned in Italy: “She goes quite quickly, but we don’t have high tech sails and rig, although she can go well,” says skipper Kent. “We’ve entered the ARC Racing Division to keep everyone on their toes and just for the competition. We are not going in with any false hopes or pretentions, we just think it’ll be a bit more interesting for us as a crew and are working on about 17 days for the crossing. We have a very lively group of interesting people on board and are looking forward to a great race.”

The crew on El Oro will certainly not be worrying about the amount of food they store on board as they are passionate about food:

“We eat well on this boat as the owner is a real culinary who is passionate about food. We eat quite exotically and have quite a few people who are great cooks. I am a chef myself but I generally don’t do the cooking as owner Tim does most of it. He’s very rare in that he comes on the boat and he does most of the cooking himself. Everyone sits down and eats together and that’s why it’s such a pleasure to work for him. We all expect to put on about 3 or 4 kilos during the ARC crossing!” says Kent.