Beneteau Most Popular Boat is the ARC

[georgec]

Here is a clip from A Sail Magazine Article. I guess no one told these owners to beware that their rudders and keels are going to fall off!


Have you ever wondered what brands and models are the most popular bluewater cruising boats? So have we, so we plundered the archives of the World Cruising Club to see which boats have featured most prominently in the last five years of the rallies that the WCC organizes—the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) from the Canary Islands to St Lucia; the Caribbean 1500 from Portsmouth, Virginia to Tortola, BVI; the ARC Europe, from Tortola and Portsmouth to Portugal via Bermuda and the Azores; and the World ARC, a biennial circumnavigation.

We weren’t surprised to find that mass production boats, once looked down upon by “serious” voyagers, now make up the bulk of the rally fleets. No longer, it seems, does the aspiring bluewater cruiser seek out slow, heavy-displacement boats with tiny cockpits and conservative rigs. As the mass-market builders produced ever-bigger models over the last 20 years, and evolving technology improved their engineering and durability, so owners began using these boats for ever-longer passages.

What’s Popular?
> Most popular brands in the ARC, 2008-2012 (in order):
Beneteau, Jeanneau, Swan, Oyster, Bavaria,
Hallberg-Rassy, Lagoon, Hanse, X-Yachts

> Most popular brands in the Caribbean 1500, 2008-2012:
Jeanneau, Hallberg-Rassy, Hylas, Tayana, Beneteau,
Island Packet, J/Boats, Amel, Lagoon, Catalina

Armchair admirals and chat-room bores may warn dolorously of lightweight structures failing in big seas and rigs crumpling at the merest hint of a hurricane, but given good preparation and a capable crew, the typical production boat is quite capable of surviving some very nasty conditions. For the trade wind passages that make up the bulk of bluewater cruising, there should be no argument about whether a suitably prepared production boat will make it across an ocean. For sailors who can’t afford or justify one of the high-ticket deluxe cruising boats, it’s good to know there are plenty of good options among the ranks of moderately priced production cruisers.

[Polux]

Regarding the predominance of Beneteau on the ARC is good to point out that the First are also Beneteaus and that on the ARC there are lot's of them.

It is also revealing the difference of brands between the Caribbean 1500 and the ARC. The study does not reveal the age of boats but I am sure that it would reveal that the average age of the boats that make the Caribbean is superior, meaning older boats, older designs. A difference of mentalities is apparent.

That difference of mentalities in what regards bluewater boats is also patent in what regards the choice of the the type of older boats that are more frequent between European and Americans: Swan for the Europeans, a fast light performance cruiser in their time and very advanced design for the epoc ; Tayana for the Americans, an heavy full keeler and a conservative design on their own time.