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NAR Info Sessions Held at Trawlerfests
As there are just over 6 months to go until the Nordhavn Atlantic
Rally (NAR), interest is heating up over this first ever power boat
convoy across the Atlantic Ocean.
Most recently at the Solomons (MD) TralwerFest, a seminar and Q&A
session was moderated by key members of the NAR Committee including
veteran passagemaker Bruce Kessler; Milt Baker, who serves as the
NAR Port Coordinator; Mike Martus, Operations and Procedures Director;
and Jim Leishman, PAE’s vice president and the Committee’s
chairman. Interested cruisers in the audience listened to the panel
discuss the rally’s latest developments.
More than 80 interested vessels had signed up to participate in
the rally and last week, those qualifying applicants were sent official
invitations to join the group next May. With 30 deposited vessel
applications and a large pool of potential crew applications already
submitted, the NAR committee is extremely pleased with the enthusiastic
response to this marvelously conceived adventure. At the end of
this month, a password protected NAR NAR information site will be
uploaded to the nordhavn.com website so that registered participants
can review crew applications and exchange information.
Later this week, a similar presentation will be given by Jeff Merrill
of PAE at the San Francisco (CA) TrawlerFest. Next week at the Fort
Lauderdale Boat Show, NAR participants are invited to join an NAR
discussion panel and dinner hosted by the Committee. This takes
the place of the Rally-focused seminars that were to be part of
the now canceled Passagemaking Symposium.
The session in Solomons began with Jim Leishman reiterating the
vessel requirements of a true ocean-crossing vessel as outlined
by Robert Beebe in his classic text, ‘Voyaging Under Power’.
A calm water range of 2500 miles is deemed necessary for the NAR
giving a comfortable reserve for the longest leg between Bermuda
and the Azores – approx. 1,800 miles. The May 2004 departure
has been picked to optimize the most favorable seasonal weather
conditions. Each participant is going to be required to test their
own vessel prior to departure by doing some seatrials and measured
runs in order to get an accurate measurement on their fuel consumption
and range at various rpms. This data will be made available to the
NAR organizers to assist with planning the trip.
The plan is to divide the fleet into two divisions, with the smaller,
slower boats departing first so that, in theory, the entire fleet
will arrive at approximately the same time.
Milt Baker traveled last May to the NAR destination ports in Bermuda,
the Azores and Gibraltar with his wife Judy – one year prior
to the anticipated NAR fleet arrival to get a better sense of the
weather, conditions and resources available. Milt’s informative
slide presentation certainly inspired the masses.
He started with a description of the route which departs at Fort
Lauderdale over the Bahamas and then on to Bermuda with a south
island rounding before heading west over the top of Bermuda to the
Hamilton harbor. The fleet will be guests of the Royal Bermuda Yacht
Club and this leg should last no more than 5 days. Milt’s
slide show was an overview of the information provided on the NAR
section of the Nordhavn website – a fantastic tool for all
participants – which covers basics such as visas, banking
and reprovisioning markets. In addition, Milt also covered important
aspects of trawler travel arrival such as internet access, taxi
availability, type of electricity, restaurants, marine supplies,
laundry, haul out facilities, etc. The NAR committee has already
made arrangements at each port of call for fleet mooring, water
and fuel.
The second leg from Bermuda to the Azores is the longest portion
of the trip; a distance of approximately 1800 miles – which
will take an estimated 10 days depending upon the size and speed
of each vessel. The fleet will be arriving at Faisal Island and
landing at the port of Horta. Milt was pleased to report that some
of the best cheese in the world can be found here. He also advised
that Express Mail is the best way for friends and family to send
care packages as Fed Ex and DHL are often routed through Portugal
and can take much, much longer to arrive. Again, details such as
trash and oil disposal, the fact that special fresh water hose attachments
are required and other important considerations have been thoroughly
explored and the organizers are obviously doing their best to anticipate
needs and advise participants to make this as easy a trip as possible.
Still, Rally Committee members stress that although an extensive
effort is being undertaken to make this a pleasurable and safe adventure,
the ultimate responsibility of each vessel relies with her owner/captain
and each yacht should plan for worst case scenarios and have back
up plans and contingencies – an attitude of self reliance
will go very far to insure that each yacht and crew has a fantastic
voyage. An extensive list of requirements is being finalized and
each yacht planning to participate must qualify to participate.
For example twin engines or a separate wing engine will be required
so that a disabled yacht could still move along at minimum 4-knot
speed. Also, vessels of a certain age will be required to have a
thorough marine survey with the results submitted to the NAR committee.
Look for this list of requirements to be posted on the Nordhavn
website soon.
After a rest in the mid-Atlantic, the fleet will then be on the
home stretch to Gibraltar. A very small island with commercial air
access only available through London. This leg is approximately
1,100 miles and should take the fleet no longer than 6 days. Arriving
in the Med will require Med-mooring – where each yacht ties
up stern to the shore bulkhead and where each boat will need to
supply her own ‘gang plank’ or passerelle. Electrical
requirements 50 vs. 60 cycle and various shore power attachments
are part of the ‘fun’ of traveling in the Med.
Mike Martus followed Milt with a great discussion about a new communications
product called SkyMate. SkyMate will be a sponsor of the NAR and
each vessel will have a unit installed onboard. This is a small
box device with antenna that automatically sends an hourly signal
to a satellite, which will report each vessels latitude, longitude,
heading and speed. Powered by 12 volt the installation takes only
an hour and you use your onboard laptop or windows based PC to run
email through Microsoft Outlook. It is even possible to send a typed
message which gets translated to a synthetic voice which can then
dial a shore based number and leave a message for those at home
who don’t have email capability. SkyMate should prove to be
an invaluable tool to have on board. All of the vessels positions
will be organized and submitted to the Nordhavn website so that
at least daily a fleet position report will be posted so that everyone
interested can follow along. Plans are also being developed to keep
a running journal from interested yachts similar to the crew reports
filed last year from the Nordhavn 40 during the ATW around the world
trip.
The trip will have escort vessels and there will be yacht mechanics,
technicians and medical support always nearby with deployable tenders
to render assistance.
The event has a loose schedule of dates, but a grand finale celebration
is scheduled to be held in Gibraltar on July 4th. After arriving,
each yacht will be on her own to enjoy the summer. Plans are moving
forward to obtain a group discount rate to ship vessels back to
the states as on-deck cargo for those owners who don’t wish
to explore the Med or need to get back home.
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