ARC ( Atlantic Rally for Cruisers ) 2022 Ciel Bleu Comes Out on Top

Published 18:41 on 6 Dec 2022

Ciel Bleu at Sparkes Marina Hayling Island

Cruiser owners who were in the club prior to 2018 may remember Nick and Maddie Toogood's grey catamaran Ciel Bleu. After her owners bought another catamaran in Greece, Ciel Bleu languished for a while at the far end of the dinghy park until her Covid delayed sale was finally completed in June of 2020.

She is now enjoying a new lease of life under her new owner having acquitted herself well in ARC+ transatlantic rally from the Canaries to Grenada via the Cape Verde Islands. Ninety one boats were entered for the rally, 20 of them Catamarans and with a couple of exceptions all left Las Palmas in light winds on November 6th.

The first Stage of the rally to Mindelo, Cape Verde Is, a distance of about 850nm and the light winds didn't hold, so before long Ciel Bleu was surfing at 14 Knots, which is not for the faint hearted !. Although at 32 feet and 34 years old,the smallest boat and oldest multihull in the rally by some margin, she finished 11th multihull and 31st overall out of 91 boats in total. Even better, this resulted in a 1st multihull and 7th overall after the handicaps had been applied. According toJon Walmsley, her new owner, this result profited greatly from a magnificent 24 hour run of 192 nm.

Ciel Bleu and the other ARC+ boats left Cape Verde for Grenada in the Caribbean some 2150nm away on the 18thNovember. For this leg strong winds and a big swell from aft made challenging conditions for all the boats and besides the usual crop of blown out sails, twenty boats in the fleet suffered from autopilot failures and another, the unfortunately named One Piece, a brand new Outremer 45 lost a rudder. Two crewmembers were evacuated from the Oyster 675 Alikawith serious injuries after a crash gybe, but Ciel Bleu made it through unscathed, and though the conditions were not to her liking, she should achieve a respectable mid fleet position after the handicapping is applied.

Congratulations to Ciel Bleu and to her new owners Jon and Dawn.

The ARC is a 'must do' for many sailors, and attracts over 200 boats and 1200 people every year to sail 2700 NM across the Atlantic from Gran Canaria to Saint Lucia

Ciel Bleu in her new Livery at Port Louis, Grenada, with two of her four crew, after the complimentary rum punch.