What are the favorite routes for sailing the North Atlantic?

Question

I am interested to know if there are any well known yacht races that cross the Northern Atlantic? What is the smallest sized yacht this could be done on?

Answer 1

Look up the ARC Rally. Every year a lot of yachts gather in Las Palmas Canary Islands to cross together for safety. See http://www.worldcruising.com/arc/ for more info.

Answer 2

try looking in the web, www.routs .com

Answer 3

Depart almost anywhere from the west coast of the U.S. in late spring or early summer after the winter weather, but well before hurricane season. Stop in Bermuda if leaving from the Carolinas, Georgia or Florida. Another optional stop is the Azores. The trick is use the prevailing westerlies and northern edge of the clockwise rotating Bermuda-Azores High, but not get too for south to get becalmed and not too far north to get into the worse weather seen at higher latitudes.

Once crossing the north Atlantic, there are many options including a bit of the British Islands, Spain, Portugal, France some of the Med and northwest Africa. However, if doing a one-year trip, one will have to keep any of these stops brief.

Most cruisers then congregate in the Canary Islands, waiting for the end of the Hurricane season, after which the head south taking advantage first of the Canary Current and then the equitorial current and trade winds, arriving in the Caribbean in late December or early January. One then has a lot of time to enjoy the Caribbean Islands before working their way back towards the U.S. through Bahamas, arriving back home on the east coast in early summer. Of course, one can begin this route at any point along the circle that their home or boat happens to be.

This is the standard cruising route. Racing yachts may cut corners and seasons. I once read of someone who sailed across on a 10-foot sailboat, but that's pretty crazy. Many people have done it on 26-27-footers such as the contessa, westerly and various folkboats. However, I'd say boats in the low 30s are more common for what are still considered smaller cruising boats.

Here's some more information on the races:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ostar...