The Minnow will cross the Atlantic (hopefully) in the ARC, Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, later this month. The crew of the Catana 52 is made up of

Serge Bigotto, Paris

Jim Forquer, Southern California

David Renouf, Southern California

Mike Webster, Pryor, Oklahoma

Bob Webster, Pryor, Oklahoma

Serge, Mike, and Bob have a history of sailing together. However, much of it was in a 15-foot open power boat. Last summer the three, along with a couple of their offspring, managed sail a Bahia 46 from Norfolk, VA to La Rochelle, France without sinking. Catamarans are notoriously difficult to sink.

Jim and David are competent sailors and allegedly know what to do with all those ropes. It is not known, however, whether they'll be able to untangle the gorilla knots commonly used by Oklahoma farmers.

Sailing with multilingual crews has been a challenge almost as long as there have been sailboats, and this voyage will likely be no exception. While French-English communication is not a problem, there may be a considerable language barrier between English and Okie, as nautical terminology is nonexistent in the latter.

The Minnow is fully outfitted with modern maritime equipment necessary for a transatlantic voyage, such as an electric piano, a baritone, and two sousaphones. Bob and Mike Webster are threatening the Canary Islands in general and the ARC specifically with loud 2-part sousaphone renditions of the national anthem for each of the 25 countries represented in this year's ARC: Australia, Austria, U.K., Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Leichtenstein, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, U.S.

Mike and Bob have performed in prominent locations such as the MGM Grand in Las Vegas (they were eventually escorted out) and the Navy Pier Auditorium in Chicago (where they were asked to leave by the police). Research may be undertaken during the crossing by Jim, David, and Serge on the effectiveness of sousaphone bells as a series drogue.

http://rwebster.com/sousaphones.htm

In case anybody is interested in joining in, here's the music.