Forty years since he founded the original ARC rally, Jimmy Cornell is launching a new cruise-in-company event for adventurous sailors, the High Latitude Challenge, which features the ‘bucket list’ expedition sailing destinations of both Antarctica and the Northwest Passage.

“This is not planned as an organised rally, but as a rolling event with interested participants joining anywhere along the route, and finishing wherever they prefer,” Cornell explained.

The clockwise route will start from Cherbourg, France in September 2026. It will then head south, to Rio, Brazil, then from Ushuaia the intention is to cross to the Antarctic Peninsula.

There is a 8,600-mile passage northbound in the Pacific, from Chile to Alaska via Easter Island and Honolulu. Then from Alaska there will be an attempt to transit the Northwest Passage and Labrador Sea to Newfoundland.

Antarctic summer

The Challenge has been timed to align seasonal weather conditions – based in no small part on Cornell’s own experience of sailing in these areas.

It’s timed to deliver the fleet to Antarctica in summer (January-February), and to be in the Arctic during the brief window when the Northwest Passage may be navigable (July-August), while also avoiding tropical storm seasons in all regions.

It’s expected that yachts may join at points such as Ushuaia, Argentina, or Dutch Harbor, Alaska. US-based yachts may leave from Newport on an eastbound transat to join in Cherbourg.

There will be logistical and service support at two key stopover points, with good facilities: Mar del Plata in Argentina, and Honolulu in Hawaii.

Cornell adds: “There will be a support team and Cornell Sailing presence in key places: Cherbourg, Las Palmas, Mar del Plata, Ushuaia and later Hawaii and Dutch Harbor, and finally Nuuk [Greenland].”

Experience required

To find out more about the event and how to participate email info@cornellsailing.com with ‘Challenge’ as subject.

Cornell says: “Anyone interested will be sent a questionnaire with details of their sailing experience in miles and years, the kind of boat they intend to use, etc. Based on those facts I’ll advise them whether I believe they should be attempting such a challenging voyage or not.”

Qualified participants would be asked to pay a fee of £500, refundable from a realistic participation fee depending on how many sign up to be part of the event, Cornell added.

Cornell goes full circle

The Challenge is something of a ‘full circle’ moment for Cornell in more respects than one, as he recalls the original ARC rally came about through collaboration with Yachting World.

“I was contributing articles based on our recently completed world voyage to Yachting World when [then editor] Dick Johnson asked me to fly to Las Palmas in Gran Canaria to interview some skippers on their expectations before the Atlantic Crossing – and then fly to the Caribbean and try to find some of the same skippers to interview them on completion of the Atlantic passage.

Cornell’s Aventura III in Antarctica

“However, while I was in Las Palmas and seeing five or six boats leaving the marina every day, setting off on the long voyage across the Atlantic, the waving and tears of friends… and the following day witnessing the same scene again, I decided that surely somebody should get all these separate people into one group motivated by a sense of togetherness?

“I flew to the Caribbean, met some of those I’d met in Las Palmas, and each agreed a rally idea was something they’d have gladly joined. Back in London, I spoke to Dick about it and he thought it was indeed a very good idea.

“The ARC was launched at a party in St Katharine Docks. Soon after Yachting World hit the stands, letters started arriving at my address – hundreds of them. And in late November 1986 209 boats left for Barbados in the first ARC.”