Meet the Fleet!
This year's ARC+ sailors come from 27 countries, with the top three nationalities being UK (24%), Norway (13%) and USA (10%). Sailors come from as far away as Australia and Chile, Japan and Bulgaria
The youngest skippers are both 26. Alastair Hughes from Bavaria 46 Vision Wahoo (GBR) and Carl Corneliussen of Xp44 Born to Run (NOR).
Three skippers share the accolade of ‘elder statesman’, all of whom are 74. Blair Wallace from Ovni 370 Silver Moon (USA), Peter Steinmann of XC-45 Shanna (CHE) and Helmut Rainalter of Beneteau Oceanis 58 Blue Passion (FRA). Helmut just sneaks ahead as he will be celebrating his 75 birthday while sailing to Grenada.
There are 37 children aged between 9 months and 16 years sailing on 19 boats, including three sets of twins. A third of the family boats are Norwegian, four are British, two each from USA and Netherlands and one each from Germany, Canada, Spain, France and Sweden.
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| Curry family on Kaia II of Vancouver CAN) | Rasmus and Sarah on Notorius (NOR) | Lowe family on Onyva Mondiale (GBR) |
About the boats
The smallest monohull is Carol Wu’s 10.95m Hallberg-Rassy 340 Aria Legra (GBR) and the largest is John McDonnell’s 21.6m Solaris 74RS Luminous 3 (GBR).
The smallest multihull is 11.55m Helios (SWE) a Lagoon 380 S2 owned by Christer Sjö. The largest is Masahisa Saito’s 21.03m Dixon 69 Nakula (MYS).
Both Luminous 3 and Nakula will be joining the World ARC 2025-26 round the world rally that starts from Saint Lucia in January 2025.
There are 12 boats launched in 2024 and 8 launched in 2023. 2024 launches include three Outremers, two Catanas, two Oysters and one each from Excess, Solaris, Jeanneau, Lagoon and Ovni. One is ARC+ regular Pierre de Saint-Vincent’s latest Piment Rouge – a Catana 50 OC.
The oldest boat is Simon Ridley’s Swan 46 Mk 1, Gertha 5 (GBR) built in 1983. After ARC+, Simon is joining World ARC 2025-26 to sail across the Pacific to Australia.
In total, 39 manufacturers and brands are represented in the fleet. The most popular brand of monohull this year is Jeanneau with 11 entries, followed by Amel, Beneteau and Hallberg-Rassy with 5 entries each then Bavaria, Hanse and Oyster with 4 entries each.
For multihulls Lagoon leads the fleet with 6 entries, followed by Outremer with five, then Excess, Fountaine Pajot and Nautitech with three each.