Yes, I sailed round the world with Blue Water.

The rally is good for
- giving you the confidence to go
- binding you to a group of like-minded yachties. To my mind this is the main thing you get for your money. Ironic, as you haven't paid them anything, but because you have all paid so much to BWR, you tend to stick with it.
- getting parts procured and delivered
- arranging transits of the Panama and Suez canals
- finding crew if you need to
- arranging social events in far flung parts, but some would say that the fee is a lot to pay for a few parties
- organising safety cover in potentially dangerous parts of the world such as the Gulf of Aden
- when disaster strikes. They were excellent when a participant sank (see below), and would I'm sure be just as good if some one were to be dangerously ill, arrested etc.

However. be aware that
- the organisers are master salesmen. The seminars and website gloss over a lot of the discontent of the ralliers. In port, conversation quickly got round to the latest complaint about the rally organisers and as the rally wore on, there were so many complaints it was sometimes hard to find anything else to talk about.
- the numbers taking part have been reducing, from over 40 in 95, to mid thirties in 98 to barely a dozen in 99 and 2001. This has a good side in that some ports can't take the high numbers, but it makes the organiser's margins thin and their support more sparse eg the 99 rally did not get the advertised support in San Blas, Bora Bora, Tonga, Kupang or Bali.
- the small numbers mean that 'esprit de corps' is not as strong. This is accentuated by the huge size range of the fleet, from 70' down to 35' which means that some boats will be leaving port as others are sailing in. BWR reaction to this in 99 was to cancel the scheduled parties due to lack of support!
- the rally tends to attract less well-prepared yachts and crews. The 98 rally had three septuagenarian skippers who sailed sections of the rally single handed, relying on other rally members for support. One sank more than 100 miles from land in the South Pacific, bought another yacht in NZ and sank that in Fiji while off the rally, then bought a third in Australia one month before being welcomed back into the 99 rally with open arms. She was towed into the first four ports with no engine and finally gave up in Thailand. The rally organisers were quite happy - they had her cheque!
- the need for help with officialdom is overstated. Apart from the Canals (see above) your best source of help and advice is other yachties, who can advise you on 'going with the flow'. Early in their existence, the rally organisers ended up on the wrong end of some litigation (unrelated to sailing) but this has governed their actions ever since, so they have an overdeveloped sense of compliance which is simply misplaced in many parts of the world.

If you are not sure whether the rally is for you, sign up for Rally Antigua, pay 500 pounds only, attend all the seminars, and wait till Antigua to decide if you want to sign up for the rest of the rally, sail on without the rally, stay in the Caribbean or sail home. If you pay the whole fee and drop out you won't get a refund.

Rally Veteran