Cruising Rally Question

[Cheetie]

I''m in the process of making some cruising plans for 2003. I would like to work my way up the Chesapeake Bay to Maine or Nova Scotia this summer and then winter in the Caribbean starting in November (I''ll have about a year to do this beginning in June).

I''ve seen ads and displays at boatshows for different Cruising Rallys (e.g.Nautech New England 600, Bahamas 500, etc.) Would anyone care to share their experiences on these rallys? What are the positive and negative aspects of participating? Any recommendations?

Here''s what I''ve gleened so far:
Positive: Organized, shared safety and routing info., sets a more firm departure date, opportunity to make new friends

Negative: Cost, Organized sched. could be restrictive, ''caravan syndrome'' (moving with the herd), too much social contact, busy or crowded anchorages.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated,

John

[eathen]

I have gone on Nuutech''s New England Rally on
my own boat and the Bahamas Rally this fall
as crew. If you have not been offshore before
this is one way to get prepared. I spent the
spring of 2001 getting the boat ready to go
offshore, installing safety equipment to
comply with Nautech''s requirements and having
a rigging inspection which found some problems which I would not have detected.
The cost of the rally was small compared to
what I spent buying safety equipment and
replacing some of the rigging.
Prior to the rally there were seminars on
safety, routing, weather breifings and one
for the ladies on what to expect out there.
I believe everyone felt the social events
were very enjoyable, and new friends were
made. There was no herd mentality, once the
rally started the boats rapidly became
seperated and we sailed in company of 2 to 3
other boats of comparable speed.
The negative, the rally will wait for a period of 3 to 4 days of fair weather to
leave and will avoid sailing into bad weather. But once they leave, schedules must
be maintained and this is dictated by the
tides and currants along the route and the
need to arrive in ports during daylight hours. Nautech says their schedules are based
on an average speed of 5 knots, but to me it
seems like it was closer to 6 knots. What
this means is that you are leaving in fair
weather where the winds tend to be light and
if you can''t maintain 5 to 6 knots then you
have to motor so we ended up motoring most
of the time. You will need a reliable engine,
clean fuel tank and maybe take extra fuel.
Also, Nautech will make arrangements in each
port with a marina or harbormaster for space
and what you do is call them several months
in advance and reserve a slip or mooring so
there is no problem finding space in a crowded harbor such as Newport.