Equipping a boat for ocean crossings means a lot of extra thought about how handle boat or equipment failures and accidents and emergencies up to a thousand miles from the nearest land. We can’t stop things going wrong (they always do on boats) but we can be prepared, think about what might go wrong and have the equipment and training to handle it where possible.

We are taking part in the ARC+Cape Verde in November 2023 and also plan to cross the Pacific in 2025. This means ocean legs of over 2000 nm and 3000 nm respectively. World Cruising (the organisers of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) publish a safety checklist which is largely based on the RORC Offshore Special Regulations for racing. These checklists are a great place to start to check that the boat and crew are ready for the adventures to come.

The checklists cover safety and medical equipment on the boat, crew training/readiness and communications equipment. We will be assessed against these with an inspection by the ARC safety coordinators in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria before the start of the rally.

Crew and boat readiness

Crew and boat readiness covers our sailing experience, additional training and ensuring the boat has enough miles under her belt before the rally to sort out any snags. Setting straight off across the Atlantic in a brand new boat is not advisable (although some still do!).

Our crew for the ARC+ is really experienced. Anne-Laure and David have owned offshore yachts for over 30 years and completed an Atlantic crossing in their previous catamaran in 2018. David is also a veteran of 4 Fastnet Races. Lucy has 2 Atlantic voyages and one Pacific crossing to her name (on her own 46′ Freydis catamaran with her late husband Jim). Adrian took part in the BT Global Challenge as first mate on Heath Insured II many moons ago and sailed around the world (the wrong way!. For Lyn this will be her first long offshore but she is also a highly experienced sailor of over 30 years.

Several of us also have our RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Offshore and First Aid qualifications and the ARC+ crew all spent a couple of days doing the RYA Sea Survival Course together in April 2023. We learnt about risks on board and how to deal with a disaster and getting into a liferaft (the takeaway is do everything possible to avoid this. For David this was the 4th time that he’d taken this course as it is mandatory for Offshore racing.

The final readiness element is to sail the boat to the start to check the boat and systems all work and we know how to handle her. We will have covered about 1800 nm in 2023 by the time the rally starts in November.

Redundancy and Spares

The Catana 53 is designed for offshore, blue water cruising and already has lots of redundancy built-in in as standard. This means that we have back-up for a number of failures. We also specified a number of upgrades to cover a few gaps.

We have duplicated or backup systems for:

  • Power generation – 5 different means of generating electrical power and duplicated battery chargers and 240 v inverters see Power and Water
  • Making water – dual 24v and 240v pumps for our watermaker
  • Storing water and fuel – two separate 400L water tanks and two 400L fuel tanks
  • Getting rid of water(!) – 4 fixed electric bilge pumps plus 4 manual bilge pumps for both hull and engine compartments plus a portable high-capacity pump.
  • Cooking – Hob and oven on our 24v system and a microwave on the 240v power circuit. Worst case we have a BBQ on gas.
  • Washing and hygiene – 4 showers plus a deck shower and 4 marine heads (toilets)
  • Self-steering – a primary autopilot on the starboard rudder and a secondary on the port rudder (with its own controller and compass)
  • Navigation – 3 chartplotters (plus Navionics charts on our iPad and phones). Each chartplotter has a GPS built-in plus we have 2 additional dedicated GPS units. 2 electronic compasses plus 2 fixed compasses and a hand bearing compass. Paper and electronic charts. We also maintain a log of our position every hour which means we could switch to dead reckoning if required.
  • Navigation lights – duplicated deck level and masthead nav lights (all LED)
  • Radio communication – one fixed and two handheld VHF units
  • Satellite data and voice communication – two fixed satellite systems for internet data (Iridium Certus and Starlink) plus two satellite phones (fixed and handheld Iridium)
  • Propulsion and steering – being a catamaran we have two engines and two rudders. With autopilots on both rudders we can also steer if we have a steering cable failure but we also carry spare dyneema rope if we need to replace it.
  • Sails – the boat carries both a genoa and staysail giving us two upwind headsail options and three downwind sails
  • Running rigging – we carry spare halliards and sheets

We also carry a comprehensive number of spares and tools onboard for the engines, generator, water-maker; tools and materials for electrical or sail repairs or rope splicing amongst other items.

Safety and Medical Equipment

Finally and most importantly we have a long list of safety equipment and medical supplies as we have to be self-sufficient. Help might be days away from us if we are in trouble in mid-Atlantic out of range of coastguard helicopters. Although we are sailing in a rally with 100 other boats we can easily be over 50 nm (or 8+ hours sailing) from the nearest boat within a couple of days of the start.

We carry:

  • Spinlock Deckvest 6D lifejackets for every member of the ARC crew also equipped with Ocean Safety PLB3 devices. These automatically send out satellite 406MHz and local AIS distress alerts when the lifejacket is inflated, if you are in the water. This effectively pairs both global and local rescue options. Lifejackets are always worn when on deck at night, on watch or in severe conditions.
  • Jackstays and clipping points to connect our life jacket harnesses as we move around deck
  • A Crewsaver 8 man liferaft with over 24 emergency pack plus a grab bag (with handheld satphone, VHF and EPIRB)
  • 2 EPIRBs (satellite emergency positioning beacons) – one fixed automatic beacon on the back of the boat and a secondary manual beacon in the grab bag
  • Man-over board recovery systems (Jon Buoy recovery module, MOB rescue sling, throwing line, retrieval ladder)
  • Flares – both the mandatory pyrotechnic flares (dangerous!) and modern electric LED flares (safer and last longer)
  • Fire-extinguishers in all the cabins and fireblankets
  • Searchlights – two high-powered search lights
  • Torches – 5 LED pocket torches and head lamps
  • AIS – automatic identification transponder to both see and been seen by other boats and ships
  • Radar and a radar reflector
  • Foghorn, buckets
  • Hacksaw and powered angle grinder for cutting away the rig in emergency
  • A comprehensive first aid kit and also a full ship’s Distant Ocean medical kit