I suspect, that most folks of a VolksCruising bent, are not the sort who sign up and pay big bucks to do rallies.
Well...
Maybe if we had a stealth/flash-mob rally?
Nah, there's no money in a stealth rally. The fact of the matter is there is all kinds of money in and around rallies and it's really all about the money in spite of what some people will tell you.
Plus a lot of the reason for cruising for a lot of us is to have as little negative impact on the places we visit.
Jimmy Cornell was a very smart guy cruising who figured out a way to charge admission for something that actually existed already and, as such, the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) was born.
What the rally thing is for folks who have never experienced one is you go to someplace you'd be going to anyway, meet a bunch of like-minded folks doing what you're doing, make some friends, and head out to somewhere else you'd be going to anyway. Oh yeah, you also hemorrhage quite a bit of money in the process.
Which is pretty much exactly what you do if you cross the Atlantic with the ARC (or reasonable facsimile) and it's pretty much exactly what you do if you don't cross with the ARC (or reasonable facsimile). The only real difference is you pay quite a bit more to do it if you go the rally route.
The genius of the
For me, the real problem with rallies is they distort the economies for anyone who travels in their wake. Rallies are filled with cash cows who are not shy about throwing silly money in all directions so anyone following the same route will find that people equate folks on boats with money signs.
Of course, it's not just about money as big groups have a greater impact on a lot of levels and most all of them negative... Which no matter how much you try and dress it up it's still some what counter to the minimal impact watchwords of "tread lightly".
