Small marina Vela Latina?
Terry Hogan
matthew steadman
Vela Latina is the old fishing marina in Las Palmas, entrance just south (400metres or so) of the main Las Palmas marina on Gran Canaria. Is this what you mean? I think so.
It is more of a small “port" than a marina - the main users are the ‘lateen' fishing boats which perhaps catch fish but mainly race each other on summer weekends, fabulously maintained boats that are so well-loved that they bring them ashore to paint and polish them under cover all winter, the boats handed down father to son.
The ARC organisers use Vela Latina as overflow docking, to maximise the number of participants, and it’s NOT seen as a nicer option. Facilities are very limited and although there are some pontoons these days rather than simply mooring against the wall and dealing with the tide, it’s still a long hike to shower blocks which i think are still back in the main LP marina.
If you had a catamaran and took part in the ARC, you might get instructed to move to Vela Latina in early November, as I did the first time I did the ARC for what was my second annual Atlantic circuit. Not a popular location, the organisers then planned to raft the catamarans, which was even less popular, and to avoid two weeks with others tramping over the decks I removed my cleats on the outboard side for er, servicing.
Of course, I only took part in the ARC because Las Palmas marina is amongst the cheapest in Europe - paying the ARC entry fee might be seen as the Las Palmas Marina entry fee and it's still cheaper overall (with ARC entry fee) than staying in other marinas for almost three months say September to late November. Not many seem to realise this fact - easily the best and to my mins the only valid reason to join the ARC.
To avoid getting banished to Vela Latina the following year I developed an engine problem, which I miraculously cured just before departure. The third time I joined the ARC one of the crew brought yellow t-shirts which allowed us to hold bogus inspections of other boats, telling them their buckets were the wrong size, and so on. Very good fun. For this and others reasons, the ARC rejected my application the following year, and quite right too.
So anyway, my advice would be to stay in the main LP marina which is cheap as heck, and not try stay in Vela Latina with the even longer walks and less protection from swell. Unless it’s free of course. Is it? I don’t think so.
Hope this helps. Joining the ARC doesn’t help - no email groups for them, sometimes-daft advice, bogus “security” of all going together, and generally quite rubbish and cost-conscious parties. BUT it’s only ARC boats that can stay in super-cheap Las Palmas, and that’s a lot of fun.
Matt
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2017 10:02 AM
To: atlantic-cr...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [atlantic-crossing-group] Small marina Vela Latina?
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Atlantic Crossing Group" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to atlantic-crossing...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to atlantic-cr...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/atlantic-crossing-group.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Terry Hogan
-------- Original message --------
From matthew steadman <noteasyt...@hotmail.com>
Date: 14/01/2017 11:51 (GMT+00:00)
To atlantic-cr...@googlegroups.com
Subject [atlantic-crossing-group] Re: Small marina Vela Latina?