Plans are well underway for the Salty Dawg Sailing Association Rally to the Azores in 2025.  

The Salty Dawg Sailing Association (SDSA) will be running its first ever rally across the north Atlantic to Horta in the Azores Islands in the spring of 2025.  

SDSA president Mike Benjamin announced, “The rally will have starts in St. Maarten in the Caribbean and in Hampton, Virginia, on May 18th, with an initial destination of Bermuda. The fleet will gather in Bermuda for final preparations and festivities and will then depart for the Azores on June 1. The passage across the Atlantic should take in the neighborhood of two weeks depending on boat speed and weather.  For many of us, this passage across the Atlantic to the Azores and then on to Europe has been on our bucket lists for a long time.”

The Salty Dawgs will conduct a number of webinars for skippers and those contemplating the run, with the next session scheduled for January 9th at 17:00 eastern time, with a focus on the Azores as a cruising destination.  To register for this free event, go to (https://sdsa.memberclicks.net/freewebinarazoresrally).

KEY RALLY DATES

• Starts from Hampton and St. Maarten for Bermuda:  May 18, 2025

• Start from Bermuda for Horta: June 1, 2025

• Arrive Horta:  Mid June. 

• Educational webinars for participants to be scheduled will include topics such as weather routing, cruising the Azores, provisioning, spare parts, in addition to overviews of destinations such as Europe and the Mediterranean.  

(Note: The St. Maarten start will coincide with the start of the SDSA’s annual Homeward Bound Rally to Hampton VA, which will include an optional stop in Bermuda.)

The initial Azores Rally in 2025 will be limited to the first 25 boats that pay the rally fee and pass a general vetting by the SDSA rally management team. The rally fee has been set at $550 per boat. There is no separate crew fee. It is expected that all skippers will have the necessary verifiable blue water sailing experience as specified in the rally description.

AZORES RALLY SERVICES AND BENEFITS 

• Mentoring and pre-passage support from the SDSA team

• Twenty-four-hour SDSA shoreside and emergency support

• Daily weather forecasting and routing by Chris Parker at Marine Weather Center

• Emergency medical support by George Washington Maritime Medical Services

Once the Azores Rally fleet has been filled, the SDSA will maintain a waiting list in the event of participant cancellations.

To learn more log on to: www.saltydawgsailing.org
To become a member of the SDSA log onto:  https://www.saltydawgsailing.org/about-membership

To sign up for the Azores Rally 2025 log onto: https://www.saltydawgsailing.org/azores-rally

To contact the SDSA, email: [email protected]

The Salty Dawg Sailing Association is a Rhode Island-registered 501 c3 non-profit, educational organization dedicated to fostering seamanship, offshore passage-making and camaraderie among cruisers everywhere through its rallies, webinars and in-person events.