The Rally
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The Rally
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RALLY, YES OR NO?... Another frequent question: are you happy with the decision to sail in a Rally? Considering the rather high price, is it worthwhile? Isn't a two-years circumnavigation too quick? The main reason why we decided to join a Rally was our lack of long-distance sailing experience, so we liked the possibility of a double "safety net": the (although limited) possibility of help from the other boats in the group and the availability of a logistical/administrative support when in port. It looks like most other crews had similar motivations, and in fact in the second half of the voyage, where the schedule gives much more freedom to the individual preferences, many crews started complaining about the level of support and its value-for-money! THE COST: the price at the time was, both for the BWR and for the World-ARC, about 10,000 GBP (15,000 Euros), definitely no small change even taking into account that the price includes the transit fees for the Panama and Suez canals (but practically nothing else, no port fees, no parties, no sightseeing trips, unless offered by some local authority). Unlike others, we believe that the Rally price is consistent with the cost: sending one or two people around the world is expensive: the Rally income is in the range of 225,000 Euros/year (assuming 30 yachts and one Rally every two years) and after having taken out expenses there is not a lot left for a group of 3 or 4 people to earn a decent living. No surprise that sometimes we had the impression the Rally people were more keen at getting good deals for themselves rather than for the participants!... Saying that a Rally could not cost less than that, doesn't necessarily mean that it's money well spent, anyway! Two aspects that we found definitely disappointing: - the preparatory meetings, where we expected to receive a lot of advice based on the previous voyages' experience and instead we were served just a summary of the planned itinerary. In particular, I found them to be quite unwilling to discuss the problems happened during the previous Rallies, maybe they were afraid of scaring us away? - the discount deals: with 30 yachts, all shopping for the
same things such as nautical charts and pilot books, medical kits, insurance
policies and in some cases sails, SSB radios and training courses, the
conditions were ripe to obtain good discounts from some suppliers.
Same during the voyage concerning mooring fees and sight-seeing tours. THE DURATION: the Rally takes about 20 months, which is the minimum to complete a circumnavigation in a medium-small sailing vessel, taking into account a realistic average speed, the need to avoid the hurricane seasons and, obviously, leaving enough time for sight-seeing. Less than two years, but full-time: many of those who take longer, in fact do the voyage in steps, going back home for few months every year (or working locally). In fact, had the Rally been an annual event, we would have seriously considered spending more time in the Pacific, stopping for example in New Zealand and then joining the following year's Rally, extending the voyage to 3 years. At the time this was not possible, so the only alternative would have been to leave the Rally somewhere in the Pacific (e.g. in Polynesia) and then sail leisurely to Australia via New Zealand (possibly returning home for few months) and then the following year join "Rally Indonesia" with the objective of reaching Malaysia or Thailand around year-end to then cruise the area while waiting for next year's Blue Water Rally to sail back home via the tricky Gulf of Aden. 4 years in total, which may even become 5 by anticipating the Atlantic crossing to the year before, perhaps with the Rally Antigua or the ARC. NOTE: recently the World-ARC announced that their event will become annual, exactly with the idea of allowing their customers the flexibility to manage their timing by jumping from one Rally to the next one. It remains to be seen if there are enough participants to sustain one Rally every year, but it certainly is an interesting development. THE SUPPORT: there are 3 or 4 places during the voyage, where being in a Rally really does make a difference, most notably the Panama and Suez Canals, the Gulf of Aden and Indonesia, where independent yachts are not welcome. Having said that, the support provided in many other places and which boils down to ensuring a berth in otherwise crowded places, organising a few parties and sight-seeing trips and - most useful - hand-carrying stuff from Europe, turn out to be far from essential and by halfway through the voyage all crews tend to be self-sufficient. CAMARADERIE: sailing in company is one of the reasons for sailing in a Rally, although it is quite common to befriend other crews met in the various ports and anchorages and it would be perfectly possible to find boats to sail together for at least a portion of the voyage. Obviously, also in the Rally after some time smaller groups
will form, by tastes, cruising interests, boat performance, or just plain
sympathy. Furthermore, for people coming from non-english speaking countries there is an additional difficulty, as the majority of the crews come from english-speaking countries, therefore fluency in english is essential (or, a very high degree of socialising skills, like in Baby's case...) in order to really be part of the group. BWR or ARC? At the moment, the problem solved by itself with the demise of the Blue Water Rally and the World-ARC now planning a departure every year. The routes and dates of the two Rallies were very similar until they reach Indonesia, where the World-ARC diverts towards South-Africa to then cross the south Atlantic by way of a brief stop in St.Helens and then proceed to Brasil and the Caribbean. This last part of the Rally is very fast and challenging, making the World-ARC better suited to big, fully-crewed yachts as opposed to the typical retired couples that make up almost the totality of the BWR crews. As a conclusion, our opinion is that if you have the time to do a leisurely voyage (or your job allows you to sail a few months and then go back to work and so on for several years) then definitely go on your own and take your time, but if you can devote to the voyage only a limited amount of time, then joining a Rally will increase your chances of making the most out of the experience.
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Webmaster: Gianfranco Balducci - email: gfbalduc@tin.it Last Update: 11/11/2014
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