World Cruising Club has announced today (29 June 2021) that the 2022 edition of the World ARC round-the-world sailing rally, scheduled to start from Saint Lucia in January 2022 has been canceled. The next planned start will now be in January 2023.
Whilst there has been optimism during 2021 that the global pandemic may be receding, World ARC is a complex international event which takes the organizers, host ports and tourism authorities’ months of planning to deliver successfully, and detailed consideration has been given to the feasibility of a start in January 2022.
However, ongoing uncertainty about COVID infection levels, the emergence of variants, vaccination take-up, international travel and quarantine restrictions that are set to continue, even for vaccinated travelers for countries on the World ARC route unfortunately make an organized circumnavigation on a planned schedule hard to achieve. Nor would the rally provide the incredible experience normally delivered for the World ARC participants. Read on.
