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12/9/2021
NEWPORT, R.I. (December 9, 2021) - The 21st North American Rally to the Caribbean (NARC) had a superb weather window for departing from Newport, R.I. on October 31. The fleet of 21 sailboats - 17 starting from Newport and four starting from Chesapeake Bay - participated in the NARC for free and reached Bermuda with no problems, save for two days of light air. Once in Bermuda, the fleet waited out a gale and left a day later than scheduled for the NARC's second and final leg from Bermuda to St. Maarten. (A handful of boats did not plan to make landfall in St. Maarten: three sailed directly to the Virgin Islands, and one sailed to Martinique.)
"This was the first year that I had to use fuel jugs sailing from Newport to Bermuda, as we had over two days of motoring," said NARC organizer Hank Schmitt, who also is the CEO of Offshore Passage Opportunities (a crew network service) and participates in each year's Rally, skippering the St. Maarten-based Swan 48 Avocation as part of the OPO Swan Program. "That small inconvenience was balanced nicely, however, with a good reaching breeze for most of the second leg. Overall, it was an easy year."
The 1500-mile NARC brings together boats on their annual pilgrimage from the U.S. East Coast to the Caribbean Islands. While there is no fee required to join the fleet, there is a modest $100/person fee to participate in socials ashore in Newport, Bermuda, and St. Maarten; various discounts from sponsors and hosts; and shared weather routing. As explained by Schmitt, the strategic design of the NARC's Newport start - breaking up the passage into two manageable parts and starting 200 miles farther east than a Chesapeake Bay departure - provides a much better wind angle from Bermuda on to the Caribbean. "Many participants have their own plans once they reach the islands but enjoy the discounts and camaraderie of traveling with other like-minded sailors in the NARC," said Schmitt.
Schmitt, whose relationship with the marine industry runs deep, has made it his personal promise to integrate discounts, freebies and fun into every NARC Rally. Prior to the 2021 Rally's start In Newport, he organized a surf and turf sit-down meal at Rally Headquarters Benjamin's Restaurant after the Skippers' Briefing by Weather Routing, Inc. held at the Seaman's Church Institute. Team One's local retail outlet held an open house, offering discounts for offshore gear and accessories.
Clockwise from top left: NARC Organizer Hank Schmitt; fleet at St. George's inner Harbor in Bermuda; Captain Murray Jacob (center in red), a mentor to sailors wanting to gain offshore experience, with his crew at the White Horse Tavern in Bermuda; sunset as the NARC fleet enters the Trade Winds on the way to St. Maarten from Bermuda. (Photos by David Lyman)
In Bermuda, Bermuda Yacht Services organized discounts at the White Horse Pub & Restaurant for the entire layover (November 5-12) and a free fish fry dinner on the first Sunday night. Bermuda waived the cruising permit fee and provided a free walking tour of the town. Public Remembrance Day festivities, scheduled for November 11, were cancelled due to Covid-19 protocols, which also cut short the Rally's full week of planned activities.
"St. Maarten ended its mandatory pre-arrival Covid-19 testing just before we arrived, so a full week of activities went uninterrupted there," said Schmitt, adding that the socials there included free drinks and tapas at an early-arrival party hosted by IGY Marina and - after the last boat arrived on November 20 - a full local-fare dinner and free drinks at the Soggy Dollar Bar. The socials continued with a free tour of Topper's Rhum Distillery followed by a discounted dinner at the facility's new restaurant; a double-decker bus tour of the island with a prize going to the sailor best dressed as a cruise ship passenger; a beer tour of the local brewery; an Open House at Tropical Sail Loft; a Trivia Night at the St. Maarten Yacht Club, home of the Heineken Regatta; and a discounted shopping spree at Divico Cash & Carry to refill lockers for the coming season. Finally, for those who were still in St. Maarten on November 25, the NARC ended with a Thanksgiving dinner gathering at Pineapple Pete's.
"This was the first year we were hosting a week of festivities both in Bermuda and St. Maarten,: said Schmitt. "We plan to do this again next year and up the fun factor as things turn back to normal."
IGY Marina sponsored two free days of dockage and a further 10% discount for as long as anyone stayed if they needed work on their boats or were going home for the holidays. Tropical Sail Loft, Budget Marine, SXM Marine Diesel Services, FKG, Bobby's Mega-Yard and Island Water World all offered discounts on gear and services to Rally participants.
The 22nd NARC will depart from Newport, R.I. on Saturday October 29 (or the best weather window after that).
"I'm hoping that to help grow the fleet for next year, this year's participants will tell others," said Schmitt. "It's only for experienced skippers or owners who listen to advice from the professionals and have seaworthy boats, as we do not want to talk anyone into going offshore who may not be ready."
Sailors who do not have a ride and wish to participate can contact Schmitt and sign aboard a Swan in the OPO Offshore Swan Program to become a full working crew in the rally, sailing with a professional captain. OPO members get information about how to crew for free with NARC Rally skippers who need experienced crew to help safely make the passage south.
The 1500-mile NARC started in 2000 when Schmitt organized 10 skippers and crew from his Offshore Passage Opportunities program to move a fleet of Swans from Newport, R.I. to the French side of St. Maarten in the Caribbean. With a departure date set for Newport in the Fall, he decided to invite other boats to join in an organized rally and has organized the annual passage ever since.
For more information on the 22nd NARC or opportunities through Offshore Passage Opportunities, please contact Hank Schmitt at:
You can also visit https://www.sailopo.com for all of the offshore sailing information you can handle!
1/31/2020
Each year the traditional end of the hurricane season is November 1st and Election Day is always the 1st Tuesday in November. And we have been offshore every election year since 2000. Sometimes on our way to Bermuda, sometimes right after we depart.
Looking Back to Past NARCs
For President Obama's 2008 election we arrived to celebrations in Bermuda that would have made you think Obama was the newly elected president of Bermuda. In both 2000 and 2016 we had just left Bermuda on Monday the day before the elections and missed the entire 2000 hanging chad fiasco since we did not make landfall in St. Maarten until the weekend after the elections.
For President Trump's 2016 election we were also offshore on the second leg and so our Breaking News cycle was a two-minute satellite phone called simply saying Trump won the next day and nothing more.
Looking Forward to the 2020 NARC
This year waiting until after Election Day would mean moving the departure date from Newport too late, so this year we will depart on Tuesday Oct 27th 2020. This date still allows for a weather delay and time to reach Bermuda by election day results on Tuesday night, November 3rd. The fleet will depart Bermuda no earlier than Wednesday November 4th and arrive in St. Maarten 5 or 6 days later. So now you have the dates for the start of the NARC Rally and everyone can schedule accordingly.
2020 NARC Schedule Summary
6/10/2019
HUNTINGTON, N.Y. (June 10, 2019) -- The “North American Rally to the Caribbean” (NARC)<https://www.sailopo.com/NARC_Rally_NARC_Rally_Overview.aspx>, which is free for participants to join, will celebrate its 20th Anniversary in 2019 when it once again brings together boats on their annual pilgrimage south to the Caribbean from the U.S. East Coast, organizing socials, discounts and shared weather routing. Scheduled for October 26 (or the best weather window near that date), the 20th Anniversary NARC Rally will offer departures from the longstanding participating port of Newport, R.I. and – for a second year – Cobb’s Marina in Little Creek, Virginia. The NARC Rally then hosts a stop in Bermuda before ending in St. Maarten.
“We are the only rally that offers an official stop in Bermuda,” said NARC organizer Hank Schmitt who also is CEO of Offshore Passage Opportunities (OPO), a crew network service. He explained that the route to Bermuda encourages participants to sail there rather than motor sail into the Southeast Trades without stopping. “You have to go east until you get near Bermuda anyway, so why not stop in for a visit?,” said Schmitt.
Schmitt plans to make each port visit special, especially the final stop in St. Maarten where five big sponsors have been invited “to lavish our new arrivals with ‘The Friendly Islands’ treatment.”
The sponsors are IGY Marina, which will offer two free days of dockage for each Rally boat and a 10% discount for as long as the boat stays; Budget Marine, which will offer Rally entrants a 15% discount on purchases for three months and free sign-up for the company’s new WhatsApp service; Heineken Regatta, which will reduce the entry fee for early sign-up in the Island Time Division of the 40th Annual Heineken Regatta; FKG, which will offer free rigging inspection upon arrival and a 10% discount on any repairs determined as needed during that inspection; and Bobby’s Mega Marina, which will offer a 10% discount on hauling/launching, pressure washing and chocking of Rally boats from November to the end of January.
“St. Maarten is very much recovered from Irma,” said Schmitt. “All the marine services are open; it is a duty-free island, which means it is great for provisioning, and it has the biggest airport and best airline services in the Caribbean. All this, plus the efforts of our five sponsors, will make St. Maarten a far better island than any other to call home for the winter. Or at the very least, participants can make St. Maarten their first landfall to get their boats checked and repaired if needed, leave for the holidays and then return and re-provision to explore the rest of the Caribbean.”
The rally is free with no per-boat fee to sign up. There is a $100 per-person fee for the socials, which include a dinner at Benjamin’s in Newport; a Bermuda fish fry at the Dinghy Club in Bermuda; and a wrap party at the Fat Turtle at IGY Marina in St. Maarten. Shared weather routing comes from WRI in upstate New York and discounts on dockage apply in Newport and St. Maarten. The head tax in Bermuda will be waived, saving participants $35 pp, and new this year will be a one-week option to stay longer in Bermuda and enjoy all that the island has to offer.
Sailors who do not have a ride and wish to participate can contact Schmitt and sign aboard a Swan in the OPO Offshore Swan Program to become a full working crew in the rally, sailing with a professional captain.
The NARC Rally started in 2000 when Schmitt organized 10 OPO skippers and crew to move a fleet of Swans from Newport, R.I. to the French side of St. Maarten in the Caribbean. With a departure date set for Newport in the Fall, he decided to invite other boats to join in an organized rally and has organized the annual passage ever since.
For more information on the 20th Anniversary NARC Rally or opportunities through Offshore Passage Opportunities, contact Hank Schmitt, 1-800-4-PASSAGe, +1 631-423-4988 or visit www.sailopo.com
More About Offshore Passage Opportunities OPO’s mission is to seek, gather and create quality offshore passage opportunities for its members. The company’s North American Rally to the Caribbean (NARC), a 1500-mile “delivery south” from Newport, R.I., has taken place each year since 2000.
Media Pro Int’l
41 Memorial Blvd.
Newport, R.I. 02840
401-849-0220<tel:401-849-0220
Offshore Passage Opportunities
PO Box 2600
Halesite N.Y. 11743
1-800-4-PASSAGE
8/4/2015
HUNTINGTON, N.Y. (Aug. 4, 2015) -- The 16th annual "North American Rally to the Caribbean" (NARC), which is free for participants to join, departs November 1, 2015 (or best weather window near that date) from Newport R.I. The NARC's primary purpose is to encourage boats that are heading south from the U.S. East Coast to join together for socials, discounts, and shared weather routing.
"The NARC started in 2000 as a way to move the Swan charter fleet to the islands, and over the years it has morphed into a much anticipated event for boats making the annual pilgrimage south," said Hank Schmitt, organizer of the NARC and CEO of Offshore Passage Opportunities (OPO), a crew network service. "We make a stop in Bermuda and end up down-island, where two exciting new NARC developments will come into play."
New for the Rally this year is the addition of sponsor St. Maarten Yacht Club, organizer of the annual St. Maarten Heineken Regatta – the first major regatta of the Caribbean racing season. The sponsorship puts new emphasis on the NARC's finish in St. Maarten where the yacht club will host the final party and offer an early sign-up discount for this year's St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, scheduled for March 3-6.
Also new is an opportunity to participate in the first annual Dominica P.A.Y.S. (Portsmouth Association of Yacht Services) "Yachtie Appreciation Week" on the island of Dominica. P.A.Y.S. is a non-profit organization aimed at providing yacht services and security to visiting yachts, thereby assuring future development of the yachting industry in Dominica. Scheduled for February 14 to 21, the Yachtie Appreciation Week has been organized to celebrate the installation of a new mooring field that Schmitt – working with P.A.Y.S., the Tourism Board of Dominica and generous OPO members and other sailors – has been orchestrating in Prince Rupert's Bay over the last few years.
"All the major rallies go to popular and large islands that can accommodate their numbers," said Schmitt, explaining that in addition to the NARC finishing in St. Maarten, the ARC finishing in St. Lucia and the Caribbean 1500 and the Salty Dawg finishing in the BVIs. "Sometimes, as cruisers, when we explore the smaller, less populated islands and get to know the people, we start thinking not ‘what can you do for us?,' but ‘what can we do to help you?"
Schmitt, who has been stopping in Dominica for several years and two years ago shipped materials there for local "Boat Boy" Albert Lawrence to build a boat, said that the island has no marina of any kind and almost no marine services, so it felt right to make the philanthropic move of buying and shipping materials needed for the mooring field. The materials includes 50 new anchors, mooring balls and all the appropriate tackle. During Yachtie Appreciation Week, all visiting yachts will receive free moorings, discounted island tours, and nightly socials. As a bonus, St. Maarten Yacht Club will help organize a Rally/Race to get boats from the island of Dominica to St. Maarten in time for the St. Maarten Heineken regatta.
"With the mooring field, it will be much easier for cruising yachts to enjoy Dominica," said Schmitt. "The island is 70% undeveloped and so lush compared to the rest of the Caribbean that they export produce to other islands." Dominica also has a fascinating, if fledgling, eco-tourism trade that capitalizes on its natural beauty. Some of the island's assets are a nearly 5,000 foot mountain peak; tours on the Indian River and to the second largest boiling lake in the world; 14 nature trails from one end of the island to the other; and a reservation, the only one in the Caribbean (established in 1919), for the island's native indigenous people. For more information on the NARC or Offshore Passage Opportunities, contact Hank Schmitt, 1-800-4-PASSAGe, +1 631-423-4988 or visit www.sailopo.com
All seaworthy boats are welcome to begin gathering the last week in October at the Newport Yachting Center in Newport R.I. The rally is geared toward larger boats that are professionally crewed and have experienced skippers. (Smaller boats and less experienced skippers are encouraged to join the "Salty Dawg Rally," departing from the Chesapeake.)
Weather routing is presented by "WRI" Weather Routing Inc. St. Georges Dinghy & Sports Club hosts the fleet in Bermuda, while IGY Marina Group sponsors the rally finish with two days free dockage and 10% off any longer stay at the Simpson Bay Marina St. Maarten (up to and including all season).
NARC entry for boats is free, with a $100 per person fee covering three socials: dinner in Newport and Bermuda and the final Party in St. Maarten.
| Media Pro Int’l 41 Memorial Blvd. Newport, R.I. 02840 401-849-0220 |
Offshore Passage Opportunities PO Box 2600 Halesite N.Y. 11743 1-800-4-PASSAGE |
2/11/2015
HUNTINGTON, N.Y. (February 11, 2015) – Offshore Passage Opportunities (OPO), the largest crew networking service in North America, has reserved 24 crew berths for amateur crew aboard five boats it is “delivering north” during the upcoming ARC USA Rally. A Swan 57, Swan 53, two Swan 46s and a Beneteau 50, each with a professional skipper and five crew, will start the ARC USA Rally on May 9 and follow the classic warm trade wind route from Nanny Cay, Tortola to Bermuda, before taking on a second-leg crossing of the Gulf Stream for arrival in Newport, R.I. by May 25 (Memorial Day Weekend).
“It’s the perfect first-time offshore passage for amateurs,” said OPO’s Hank Schmitt, a professional yacht captain who will be skippering the Swan 46 Tango for a fourth time between the Caribbean and Newport,” mainly because of the short time commitment (two weeks, with an option to participate in only one or the other leg) and typically perfect trade-winds sailing the first few days out.” Schmitt added that OPO matches each crew signing up with the boat and crew that best fits his or her profile and says if anyone were to ask what someone like Tania Aebi would make of all this, he’d tell them “she’d be all for it!” Aebi, who famously circumnavigated the globe singlehandedly in a 26-foot sailboat at age 18, is skippering the Beneteau 50 Jojo Maria that has been entrusted to OPO during the Rally and has two crew spots left to be filled. (Aebi is now 48 and runs Tania Aebi Sailing Adventures; her epic solo journey is documented in the book Maiden Voyage.)
OPO has been involved in the professional delivery of yachts and the integrated offering of quality and affordable offshore experiences for not-so, somewhat, and well-seasoned sailors since 2000. The company is well known for its orchestration of the North American Rally to the Caribbean (NARC), a 1500-mile “delivery south” from Newport, R.I. that has taken place each November for the last 15 years.
“Like the NARC, the ARC USA Rally offers a communal sharing of information and experiences that lead to valuable ocean sailing experiences and new friendships,” said Schmitt. He explained that OPO does not own the boats on which it places sailors; therefore, there are no charter fees to cover, and expenses for participants typically run 40% to 60% less than sailing schools offering offshore courses.
The cost for full immersion in the ARC USA Rally is $2,750. (This cost does not include airfare and transportation to and from the boat.) “All rally fees are covered, including socials,” said Schmitt, “and we pay for boat fuel and provision with plans to eat well and stay dockside in all ports. As a bonus, we pay top wages for skippers who have hundreds of thousands of offshore miles to their credit, and the boats are fun to drive, comfortable offshore, and well maintained and equipped for offshore sailing.
For more information on joining the ARC USA Rally with Offshore Passage Opportunities, contact Hank Schmitt, 1-800-4-PASSAGe, +1 631-423-4988 or visit www.sailopo.com
Contact
| Media Pro Int’l 41 Memorial Blvd. Newport, R.I. 02840 401-849-0220 |
Offshore Passage Opportunities PO Box 2600 Halesite N.Y. 11743 1-800-4-PASSAGE |
