oyster yachts rally

Oyster World Rally, Preparing for the Voyage of a Lifetime

On 09 January 2022, a fleet of 25 British-built yachts, ranging in size from 54-73 feet, will set sail on a circumnavigation of the world as the third edition Oyster World Rally begins from Nelson’s Dockyard, Antigua.   When Governor-General of Antigua and Barbuda, His Excellency Sir Rodney Williams fires the start cannon, the intrepid crews – many of whom have only just achieved their first ocean crossing to the Caribbean – will be heading south on the first leg of this 16-month epic adventure to transit the Panama Canal en route to the Galapagos Islands. The 25 yachts taking part in the Oyster World Rally are crewed by families, couples, and individuals, all brought together by the lure of a global adventure of a lifetime.    The Oyster World Rally provides a fully supported experience for any Oyster owner who has always dreamt of sailing around the world . A dedicated Oyster support team works with entrants from the moment of sign up, providing technical training, advice on boat preparation and service, logistics, customs procedures, provisioning, and is even able to help to provide professional crew through Oyster Yachts Crew Finder service. The Oyster team travels ahead of the rally and is on hand at every stopover to offer an extraordinary depth of technical expertise and local knowledge.

“ We help and support our Oyster owners through every step of their circumnavigation’ ” says Allie Smith, Head of Group Events at Oyster Yachts, “ From finding crew to helping set up systems to run their businesses on-board, to destination guides, technical training, understanding weather, navigation, right through to being a welcoming face on arrival and organizing some amazing social events.  It’s a 27,000-mile support service enabling our owners to have the experience of a lifetime without all the worry and hassle. By having a limited number of yachts we create a real family feel and people make friends for life during their 16-month sailing adventure. “

The Oyster World Rally 2022-23 will leave Antigua on 09 January 2022 and head south to the Panama Canal, before arriving at the Galapagos Islands, and then onto French Polynesia and into the South Pacific. After visiting the Whitsunday Islands in Australia, the fleet then head to Indonesia and the islands of Cocos (Keeling), Mauritius, and Reunion. Christmas will be spent in the amazing city of Cape Town, South Africa before setting off into the Atlantic to the remote islands of St Helena, Ascension, Fernando de Noronha en-route back to the Caribbean in April 2023.  

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Oyster World Rally 2024-2025 officially underway

The latest edition of the Oyster World Rally – a fully supported, 16-month circumnavigation of the world – is officially underway. The 30-strong Oyster fleet departed Nelson's Dockyard, Antigua on 14 January 2024.

"This is an exclusive opportunity to sail around the world in a non-competitive rally, with the added reassurance of a professional support team and the camaraderie of fellow yachtsmen and women," explained a spokesperson for the event.

When the rally is complete, the fleet will have travelled 27,000 nautical miles and made 27 stopovers. Locations include the Galapagos, Cocos (Keeling Islands), Cape Town and Grenada.

"The trick to this rally is three things: resources, time and health," said owner of the 22.7-metre Oyster 725 Intrepid . "Those stars have to align and they won't line up forever. So, if you have a chance to put those three things together, then you've got to do it."

The Oyster fleet will meet again in Panama for their transit through the canal in mid-February. The three routes to Panama include travelling north via the British Virgin Islands, south via the Caribbean, or south west via the ABC Islands.

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Our comprehensive guide to bluewater sailing rallies around the world

• Elaine Bunting
• December 28, 2014

Worldwide there are scores of sailing rallies, cruises in copany and owners’ events to get cruising people together. Here Elaine Bunting hunts out the main ocean cruising events

As the popularity of bluewater cruising has grown, rallies have boomed. Worldwide, there are scores of sailing rallies, cruises in company and musters, not to mention owners’ association and club events. Making friends and having fun, helping each other out and sharing resources is a central feature of liveaboard cruising and many more sailors look to join a ready-made group.

The advantages of rallies go beyond the social, however; even beyond those of safety in numbers. Events provide a framework and timescale, putting a deadline on long-held ambitions. On long events such as round the world rallies, people taking part have often told me that it provided the impetus, or that they might not have carried on to the finish without the discipline of a rally.

How each event is organised and run varies enormously. Some are cruising only, others offer competitive classes. Some are very informal, with staff levels low and safety left to a skipper’s discretion. Others, most notably those of World Cruising Club , which dominates the cruising rally business, are more structured.

Detractors of rallies often complain about the cost, but my impression over the last decade is that price has become less of an issue than level of service. I’m sure this is why the ARC, for example, is so oversubscribed every year despite the €1,500 (£1,250) or more it costs to enter.

But whatever the type of event, those who take part usually speak highly of them. Above all, it’s the participants who make them. This list highlights the best-known rallies. We’ve concentrated on those that go across oceans or between countries rather than home waters events. These are the sailing rallies that take you from home to a new destination or back home afterwards.

A flying start

Rallies to get you going from Europe and the US

**Note: costs were correct at time of writing in November 2013

ARC Portugal

Starting in Plymouth, this annual event takes cruisers acrosss the Bay of Biscay towards the Mediterranean and is the first long offshore passage for some participants. The route makes landfall at Bayona, sails south to Povoa de Varzim, then coast-hops on daysails to Gaia, Figueira da Foz, Peniche, Oerias, Sines and Lagos, with a programme of activities in every port.

There are usually around 20 boats in the rally, making it one of the smaller and more intimate World Cruising Club events.

**Cost: from £625-£825 plus £275 per crewmember

ARC Caribbean 1500

Start: November

Also owned and run by World Cruising Club, organisers of the ARC Portugal and other popular rallies, the Caribbean 1500 is the longest-running rally in North America. It has two routes: the traditional one from Chesapeake Bay, US, to Tortola, British Virgin Islands; and ARC Bahamas, heading from the Chesapeake to Green Turtle Bay in the Abacos.

**Cost: US$1,200 (£754) plus $125 (£79) per crewmember

Baja Ha Ha Rally

Start: end of October

The friendly and popular Baja Ha Ha runs every year, taking crews in company on the mainly downwind 750 miles between San Diego (California) to Cabo San Lucas (Mexico). It’s an established part of the calendar that has been running for over 20 years, shepherding cruisers on a migration south to warmer winter weather. There are often more than 100 entries to the event.

A rally that caters for all levels, the Ha Ha includes racing classes as well as accommodating out-and-out cruisers who might want to anchor overnight along the way or use their engine.

**Cost: US$375 (£236) per boat, but $325 (£204) for boats under 35ft

Start: August

Another US west coast option, the Ho Ho leaves Puget Sound and goes down the coast of Oregon and northern California to San Francisco before going on to San Diego, in time to dovetail with the start of the Baja Ha Ha.

A small event that only began in 2012, it generally attracts 10-12 entries.

Cost: US$225 (£141) per boat and crewmember

Pacific Puddle Jump

Start: February

The Pacific Puddle Jump is a ‘rally’ only in the loosest sense of the word, as there is no committee boat, there are no daily roll calls, and boats from many nations leave from various points on the west coast of the USA and Mexico, bound for French Polynesia. anytime between February and June.

Because the fleet does not depart from the Americas on a single date, yachts arrive in French Polynesia any time in April, May or June, many meeting for first time in the islands.

The big plus, apart from the esprit de corps , is a bond exemption and duty-free fuel in French Polynesia.

This is one of several events by cruising magazine Latitude 38 .

Beyond the Mediterranean

Gibraltar to morocco rally.

Start: July

A four-day rally to Morocco with a reputation for friendliness, this ‘long weekend’ cruise in company has been running for 13 years and goes between Gibraltar and Marina Smir, Morocco. The passage is followed by dockside Olympics and a barbecue.

Details: New potential participants should contact Boatshed Gibraltar or ‘like’ Facebook.com/boatshedgib

Eastern Mediterranean Yacht Rally

Start: April

The EMYR is the biggest and most successful rally in the Mediterranean. It has been going for 25 years and is run on a non-profit basis by a committee of British sailors headed by Kath and David Gerrard, and Gönül and Hasan Kaçmaz. This has kept costs very low for what is a comprehensive two-month event.

The cruising fleet is usually diverse, with up to 50 yachts from a dozen or more countries. The route usually follows 1,600 miles of sailing, from Istanbul to Syria, Lebanon, Israel and finishes in Egypt. For obvious reasons this is subject to change. Syria is off the agenda this summer and Kaçmaz says: “We will monitor the changes for politics in the region and decide if we are able to go Lebanon and Egypt.”

The planned route is a mixture of daysails and longer legs, with a lot of stops along the way in Turkey, together with sightseeing tours from some of the ports to the ancient sites en route and social get-togethers for crews.

Safety equipment requirements are minimal, but the rally is split into groups – each group is accompanied by a lead boat and crews are asked to report progress at regular intervals.

**Cost: €450 (£378) per person, but €350 (£294) per person if route is shortened owing to political unrest

Cruising the Baltic

Billed as ‘six capitals in six weeks’, this new rally is modelled loosely on the World Cruising Club’s home waters Scottish Malts Cruise, with a mixture of mostly easy day-sailing, cultural and social activities, and a lead boat and crew to take overall charge.

Another rally by the pre-eminent rally organisers, the 1,500-mile event begins in Kiel in mid-July and visits Tallinn, St Petersburg, Helsinki, Mariehamn and Stockholm before it finally comes to an end in Copenhagen at the end of August.

See our story on the ARC Baltic here

Baltic 4 Nations Rally

A much-shorter scale two-week cruise into the Baltic, this has also recently been taken over by World Cruising. It starts from Copenhagen and covers 370 miles, going along the Danish coast and crossing to the north German coast before contiuing east to Poland then returning via southern Sweden.

Cost: £1,195 plus £95 per crewmember

Across the Atlantic

After more than two decades as the prinicipal east-west transatlantic cruising rally, the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers – see our reports and surveys here ) now has competition from a number of rivals that have this launched year. These are smaller and some are also cheaper.

So, that means we sailors have greater choice than ever before about how to cross. What are you waiting for?

The transatlantic rally runs 2,700 miles from the Canary Islands to Saint Lucia and is incontestably the daddy of all cruising events – the biggest and most successful transocean event in the world. It is a huge participation sports event by any standards and has run every year since it was founded in 1986.

The ARC fleet in Las Palmas

Under present managing director Andrew Bishop, World Cruising Club has expanded its portfolio, but the ARC remains its flagship event and has gone from strength to strength. Slicker than ever, it is now a professionally-run event with a business-case entry fee and service to match.

As such, it attracts charterers and big yachts with paid crew, but Bishop, a sailor himself, strives to preserve a family atmosphere for the majority of crews and always impresses us by his efforts to improve the ARC.

It sets a standard in terms of parties, seminars, safety inspections and online fleet tracking. For some sailors it may be too large or too costly, but it clearly fits the bill for many – the rally has been full to capacity every year for over a decade despite an entry list of around 225.

**Cost: £800-£1,250 plus £95 per crewmember

An additional rally to the ARC, starting from Gran Canaria and visiting the Cape Verde Islands en route to Saint Lucia. This follows a surplus of demand for ARC places, but has proved so popular it generally tops out at around 50 entries. Interestingly, World Cruising foresee the possiblity of equilibrium in future years as this rally grows and numbers in the ARC ebb.

Atlantic Odyssey

Start: November and January

Two rallies are run either side of Christmas by ARC founder Jimmy Cornell, who says his aim is to ‘return to the original spirit of the ARC – that of a non-commercial, non-competitive event for cruising sailors’. Atlantic Odyssey I sails from Lanzarote to Martinique in November; and Atlantic Odyssey II goes from La Palma to Grenada in January.

Entry fees are low by rally standards and to encourage families – they will be free to crews with children under 16.

Price: €500 (£420) per boat

Les Îles du Soleil

Start: September

Les Îles du Soleil crosses the Atlantic from La Rochelle to Madeira, the Canaries and Cape Verdes to Salvador in Brazil, then does a loop into the River Amazon. It has been popular among French crews for some years and its organisers aim to attract a much more international mix.

**Cost: €10,000 (£8,400) for 40-45ft yacht

Getting you home again

Start : April

As hurricane season approaches, this annual event from World Cruising Club takes crews back home to the US East Coast from the Caribbean, departing from Nanny Cay on Tortola and the British Virgin Islands and going to Portsmouth, Virginia, via Bermuda.

The stop in St George’s, Bermuda, allows it to act as a feeder for ARC Europe (see below).

**Cost : US$1,000 (£626) plus $100 (£63) per crewmember

Start: May and June

This event offers two routes – from Chesapeake Bay in the US or from Tortola, British Virgin Islands – to take a fleet to Bermuda, then on the more testing route across the Atlantic from west to east via the Azores before continuing to Europe.

A much smaller rally than the ARC it is nevertheless popular among family crews returning home after a Caribbean season.

Cost: £600 plus £250 per crewmember

Further afield

Setouchi international yacht rally.

Very few foreign yachts visit Japan – the numbers are estimated at less than ten every year – so, to help promote the country, the first Setouchi International Yacht Rally was organised by Japanese sailors between September and October.

It runs from Hiroshima to Ashiya Marina on the Seto-Naikai inland sea and the route is designed to introduce visiting crews to Japanese culture, hospitality and food. Entry is limited to only ten boats because some of the anchorages are quite tight. Help will be given to any crews that intend to overwinter in Japan.

It ran in 2014 and 2015 and there is a Facebook page – in Japanese

Cost : 70,000-100,000 Japanese Yen per person (£443-633)

Details : [email protected]

Sail 2 Indonesia Rally

A rival to the above, this started in 2014 and runs from the north Queensland coast of Australia (with a feeder leg from Auckland). Yachts muster in early July in the Torres Strait before sailing on though Indonesia to Singapore.

**Cost: AU$550 (£322) for boat and two crew plus AU$75 (£44) per extra person

Round the world

Until a few years ago, there were two competitor round the world rallies, run by World Cruising Club and Blue Water Rallies. But the risks of the Red Sea route did for the latter, leaving the World ARC as the only game in town. The Oyster World Rally has been launched since then, but it is only open to owners of the company’s yachts.

Camaraderie aside, the advantage of these are their firm timetables to keep things on track and the support with formalities and paperwork, especially through the Panama Canal. The World ARC has the advantage of running annually, so crews can (and do) drop out for a season in New Zealand or Australia and pick up the rest of the circumnavigation the following year.

Start : January from Saint Lucia; September from Australia

The 26,000-mile round the world rally begins from Saint Lucia, following the ARC, then goes through the Panama Canal into the Pacific to Australia and across the Indian Ocean to South Africa before heading to Brazil to finish back in the Caribbean.

In 2015 there was an attractive new twist to the event, with a branch rally that crosses the Atlantic to Brazil before heading south to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, before it links up with the traditional route in the Pacific.

**Cost: £14,000-£16,000 plus £1,500 per crewmember

Oyster World Rally

Start: January

An own-brand rally for owners of Oyster yachts, this started in Antigua in 2013 and followed a tradewinds route round the world with the assistance of Oyster’s in-house team. The company is holding the next event in 2017-19 with a longer timeframe and more flexibility on routes.

Published on January 11th, 2022 | by Editor

Oyster World Rally 2022-23

Published on January 11th, 2022 by Editor -->

The Oyster World Rally 2022-23 got underway January 9 for the 25 British-built Oyster yachts taking part in the 27,000 nm world circumnavigation that will stop at 25 locations during the 16-month trip. Starting from Antigua, the first leg extends 1180 miles through the Caribbean Sea to Panama City where the fleet will come back together to transit the famous Panama Canal in early February.

The Oyster World Rally is a fully supported experience, working with entrants to provide training, advice on boat preparation and service, logistics, customs procedures, provisioning and is even able to help to source professional crew if needed. The Oyster team travels ahead of the rally and is on hand at every stopover for support.

This is the third edition of the Oyster World Rally, and the only fully supported circumnavigation of the world. Amongst the 25 competing yachts, there are five new Oyster Yachts – three Oyster 565s, one Oyster 595, and an Oyster 675. The largest yacht in the fleet is an Oyster 725.

“The crews have all started to bond together and great friendships have started to form,” noted Allie Smith, Head of Group Events at Oyster Yachts. “After all the hard work and preparations, as well as navigating the Covid challenges, we are finally on our way!“ c

The Rally is being following in real time on the Rally Live section of Oyster Yachts website. Next stop is Panama and then the Galápagos Islands.

Tags: Oyster World Rally , Oyster Yachts

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Sailing around the world with the Oyster World Rally

The Oyster World Rally is a life-changing opportunity for sailing around the world with friends, experiencing new and exotic cultures along the way – writes Colette Flowerdew-Kincaid

Need help choosing your bluewater yacht? Check out Sailing Today’s reviews of the best round-the-world cruisers

If you’re a sailor, you dream about sailing around the world. It’s the ultimate goal; to travel to every incredible place this planet has to offer by sea. But it’s rare that one gets the chance to live this dream. After all, even if you have the boat, the time and most importantly the enthusiasm, it’s a massive thing to plan on your own. How would you go about choosing your route with so many fantastic yet widely unknown spots hidden around the world? How would you ensure your safety and stay on top of boat maintenance, even in the most remote locations?

Fitting-out for a world cruise? Find Sailing Today verdicts on the best boat heaters, wind generators & other essential gear

Luckily, there is now the opportunity to take part in an official sailing World Rally. UK-based luxury bluewater cruiser builders Oyster Yachts are currently in the midst of running their second global circumnavigation, the Oyster World Rally , and are taking applications for a third in 2021-24. The only real criteria for joining? You have to be an Oyster yacht owner, or be prepared to purchase one of their iconic vessels.

What is the Oyster World Rally?

The Oyster World Rally is a 2- to 3-year cruise around the world, open to anyone who owns an Oyster yacht and with some previous sailing experience. It involves sailing to every corner of the world with a group of like-minded people, building friendships that will last a lifetime and experiencing new and exotic cultures. Participants are armed with all the technical support they could want from Oyster’s after sales operation, whilst provisioning is arranged by the Oyster World Rally Coordinator team. Owners have the option of only joining for part of the rally, depending on the time they have to dedicate to it.

Why did Oyster start the World Rally?

The first world rally was organised to celebrate 35 years of Oyster Yachts; Liz Whitman (Head of Marketing at the time) wanted to do something that would blow all other owner events out of the water. The idea made perfect sense, as Oyster yachts are built to travel across oceans. What better way to put them to the test than by using them to sail the world?

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With the success of the first event, Oyster decided to make the rally a regular feature, opening up this fantastic experience to all the owners who didn’t get a chance to take part first time round. Today, Oyster is still the only yachting brand to run its own world rally.

What makes sailing around the world with the OWR so incredible?

Firstly, the world rally gives you the experience of working and bonding for life with some amazing people on board your boat. Secondly, it is a chance to feel that sense of complete and utter freedom that you get from being out on the water every day. Thirdly, you get a chance to get to know people that you would never meet from places all over the world, experiencing the cultures of places that you can’t even fly to.

And that last point is truly life-changing, giving you a whole new perspective on the world. Imagine evenings spent sitting on the beach of a tiny remote island, chatting with the elders of the village, watching the sun set over the gorgeous turquoise ocean and looking out at the beautiful yacht that brought you there. The Oyster World Rally is filled with nights like these, which are so completely different to how we would usually spend our time.

What’s the general route?

You’ll start in the Caribbean and sail through the Panama Canal, giving you insight into how this impressive feat of engineering changed the world. Then you’ll travel across the Pacific and out to the Galapagos, finding incredible nature at every turn.

After that, it’s out to French Polynesia to cruise around the many magnificent islands there, including Tahiti, Bora Bora and other hidden beauties. Cross to Tonga and over to Fiji to meet some of the happiest people in the world, then sail to Vanuatu, Australia and Indonesia. Then you’re across the Indian Ocean through Cocos (Keeling), Réunion, Mauritius and cruising to South Africa. Finally, you’ll sail around the bottom of South America and up to the Caribbean, when it’s time to head home.

Plenty of time is scheduled for free-cruising around regions and servicing the boats in the local marinas, and there are also long breaks where you can fly home, see your family and rest.

How do I apply?

The next Oyster World Rally will be open to any Oyster owners. Whilst the company stipulates that it can’t allow a complete sailing novice to enter, Oyster will offer to train beginners up so that by the time the rally begins they are ready to go. To enquire or find out more, simply email the team .

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Oyster Yachts announces the Oyster World Rally 2024-25

Superyacht UK editor Member news Oyster Yachts

Oyster Yachts has announced the dates of its fourth Oyster World Rally, allowing a limited number of lucky sailors to reserve their places for the voyage of a lifetime.

The forthcoming Oyster World Rally 2022-23 is fully subscribed, and high demand from Oyster yacht owners wishing to take part in a world circumnavigation has resulted in Oyster Yachts announcing its fourth event, starting in Antigua on 14 January 2024.

With strictly limited spaces, the announcement of the 16-month, 27,000 nautical mile circumnavigation of the world, opens up the Oyster World Rally 2024-25 event booking process, and a number of Oyster owners have already committed to take part.

The rally departs Antigua on 14 January 2024, and heads south through the Panama Canal, to the Galapagos Islands, and on to French Polynesia, Tonga, and Fiji before arriving in Australia at the end of July 2024. Sailing north up the east Australian coast, stopping off at the Whitsundays, Cairns and Darwin, the fleet then sails to Southern Indonesia and across the Indian Ocean to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Mauritius and Reunion before arriving in Durban, South Africa. A short hop to Cape Town for Christmas precedes the journey to St Helena, before heading back across the Atlantic to South America and northwards, returning to Antigua in April 2025.

“The Oyster World Rally is the only circumnavigation of the world organised by a yacht manufacturer, providing full support right from the pre-planning stage and all the way to the finish. A few aspiring round the world sailors have already contacted us to sign up. In some cases, these sailors have only just started the process to either buy a new or pre-loved Oyster but are keen to ensure that they have secured their spot for the 2024 Rally,” says Allie Smith, Head of Group Events at Oyster Yachts.

The Oyster World Rally provides a fully supported experience for any Oyster owner who has always dreamt of taking part in a global circumnavigation which involves crossing three oceans. Allie says, “Whether a life-long experienced sailor, or new to offshore cruising, we help provide all participants with the specialist training and learning to ensure they have the skills needed to stay safe at sea and enjoy the voyage of a lifetime. Oyster’s longstanding relationships with the industry’s leading suppliers and organisations mean our yachts have access to the best equipment and training available, and our rally partners always go that extra mile to ensure participants are ready for anything.” San Blas Islands. c. Oscar Jackson The Oyster World Rally team provides world class technical and logistics support from sign-up to attending each major destination along the rally route. As well as pre-rally technical training, this includes boat preparation and service, boat health checks, liaising with local agents, assistance with Panama Canal transit, managing clearance and immigration procedures, finding berthing in marinas, offering tips on provisioning and even providing professional crew through Oyster Yachts Crew Finder service.

“We help and support our Oyster family through every step of their journey,” says Allie. “From finding crew, to helping set up systems to run their businesses on-board, to destination guides, technical training, understanding weather and navigation, right through to being a welcoming face on arrival and organising some awesome parties! It’s a 27,000-mile support service enabling our owners to have the experience of a lifetime, without any worries. By limiting the number of yachts, we create a real family feel and people make friends for life during the 16-month lap of the planet.”

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Oyster World Rally

Clean Regatta & Green Boating Efforts

Sailors for the Sea is working with Oyster Yachts to make their upcoming Oyster World Rally 2022-2023 as low-impact on the environment as possible. Sailors can pledge their commitment to the environment by joining our growing Green Boating community. Take note of our Green Boating Goals below. The event will be certified as a Clean Regatta, and race organizers are working hard to coordinate efforts at each stopover. Oyster Yachts have earned Clean Regatta certifications in the past: Bronze for their Oyster Regatta Palma in 2018, Bronze for their Antigua Regatta and Gold for their Oyster Regatta Palma, both in 2019.

Rally Sailors, Join Here!

What is the Oyster World Rally?

The Oyster World Rally is a fully supported sailing circumnavigation for owners of Oyster Yachts. Together the fleet will sail across three oceans, covering 27,000 miles over 16 months, and will visit some of the world’s most spectacular cruising grounds. The route is timed precisely to make the most of global weather patterns so participants can experience the best of each location, with plenty of cruising time at the end of each passage. The event is capped at 30 yachts to ensure Oyster’s world class team can support the fleet every step of the way, with technical and logistics teams present at each stopover. After the success of the 2013-14 and 2017-19 events, the 2022-23 Oyster World Rally is set to deliver yet another breath-taking experience for 30 Oyster owners.

Click here to learn more about Clean Regattas.

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By Anton Troianovski ,  Andrew E. Kramer ,  Ivan Nechepurenko and Andrew Higgins

MOSCOW — The Kremlin mounted Russia’s most fearsome nationwide police operation in recent memory on Sunday, seeking to overwhelm a protest movement backing the jailed opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny that swept across the country for a second weekend in a row.

But the show of force — including closed subway stations, thousands of arrests and often brutal tactics — failed to smother the unrest. People rallied for Mr. Navalny on the ice of a Pacific bay and in the thousands in cities from Siberia to the Ural Mountains to St. Petersburg. In Moscow, protesters evaded a warren of checkpoints and lines of riot police officers to march in a column toward the jail where Mr. Navalny is being held, chanting, “All for one and one for all!”

By late Sunday evening in Moscow, more than 5,000 people had been detained in at least 85 cities across Russia, an activist group reported, though many were later released. Previously unseen numbers of riot police officers in black helmets, camouflage and body armor essentially locked down the center of the metropolis of 13 million people, stopping passers-by miles from the protest to check their documents and ask what they were doing outside.

“I don’t understand what they’re afraid of,” a protester named Anastasia Kuzmina, a 25-year-old account manager at an advertising agency, said of the police. Referring to the peak year of Stalin’s mass repression, she added, “It’s like we’re slipping into 1937.”

The large-scale police response signaled anxiety in the Kremlin over Mr. Navalny’s ability to unite Russia’s disparate critics of President Vladimir V. Putin , from nationalists to liberals to many with no particular ideology at all.

Navalny Supporters Are Met With Heavy Police Force Across Russia

Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in russia for the second consecutive week, defying the kremlin in support of the jailed opposition leader aleksei a. navaly..

[crowd noise] [yelling] [speaking in Russian] [car horn] [speaking in Russian] [crowd noise] [sirens] [crowd noise] [speaking in Russian]

But the show of force also made it clear that Mr. Putin has no plans to back down. Shortly after the American secretary of state, Antony Blinken, condemned “the persistent use of harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry released a statement accusing the United States of backing the protests as part of a “strategy to contain Russia.”

The next test for both sides will come on Tuesday, when Mr. Navalny faces a court hearing over alleged parole violations related to a six-year-old embezzlement case that could send him to prison for several years. Mr. Navalny’s allies — some of whom helped steer the rallies from outside the country via Twitter, Telegram and YouTube — declared Sunday’s demonstrations a success and quickly called for more protests outside the courthouse on Tuesday.

“Russia’s citizens again showed their power and strength, and there’s no question that Putin understands this,” Leonid Volkov, a top aide to Mr. Navalny coordinating the protests from abroad, said Sunday in a live YouTube broadcast.

But the police sought to project their strength not only in numbers but also with more fear-inducing tactics. Video footage taken in Moscow and St. Petersburg showed people who did not appear to be resisting arrest screaming after the police used taser-like devices against them — weapons not reported to have been used at previous protests. There were also reports of tear gas having been used in St. Petersburg.

The crackdown on protesters showed that Mr. Putin — who has maintained a modicum of freedoms in the country, including an open internet and some independent news media — is ready to ratchet up authoritarianism in order to avert a possible threat to his power. The question is whether more Russians will actively resist such an authoritarian turn, especially as images of police brutality course through social media in the coming days.

“The bolts are tightening,” said Nikolai Babikov, 31, a computer systems analyst in Moscow, gazing apprehensively at the riot police and at the chunky gray police vans that hold detainees. “Freedom is being eliminated, and bit by bit we are becoming the Soviet Union again.”

Mr. Putin has faced growing discontent in the general public for several years amid a decline in real incomes and the dissipation of the patriotic fervor that accompanied his annexation of Crimea in 2014. Mr. Navalny has long been the Kremlin’s loudest critic, and he accused Mr. Putin of trying to kill him via a nerve-agent attack last summer.

Mr. Navalny put a match to that built-up discontent two weeks ago when he flew home to Moscow after five months of recovering in Germany from the poisoning, despite facing near-certain arrest upon arrival. Then, with Mr. Navalny in jail, his team released a two-hour-long video accusing Mr. Putin of having a secret palace built for him on the Black Sea.

The video was seen more than 100 million times on YouTube and energized the protests calling for Mr. Navalny’s release. On Sunday, footage from across the country showed some protesters brandishing toilet brushes and chanting, “Aqua disco” — references to an $850 toilet brush and elaborate fountain detailed in Mr. Navalny’s report.

The Kremlin has denied the report about the palace and scrambled to contain the public outrage over it. On Saturday, state television broadcast an interview with a friend of Mr. Putin, Arkady Rotenberg, who said he was in fact the owner of the property and was planning to turn it into a hotel.

“I am for honesty, nothing else,” said Lyudmila Mikhailovna, an 83-year-old retired pediatric doctor in Moscow who declined to give her last name.

She said she was no great fan of Mr. Navalny but had come out to protest after watching his video about the palace.

Sunday’s protests began around noon on Russia’s Pacific coast and rolled across the nation, with its 11 time zones, from east to west. In Vladivostok, a port city on the Sea of Japan, protesters avoided a city center blocked by riot police officers and descended onto the ice covering Amur Bay. Clasping hands, videos showed, they formed chains and danced as they chanted, “Putin is a thief!” and “Russia will be free!”

Riot officers, initially hesitant to follow on the frozen water, decided to give chase. But it seemed to be a slow-motion chase, with each side moving gingerly on the snow-covered expanse of ice under a gray late-afternoon sky.

It was just one of many remarkable scenes that played out on Sunday in eastern Russia, where large-scale protests are rare. In the Siberian city of Irkutsk, where temperatures approached minus 20 Fahrenheit, the turnout was significantly smaller than the thousands who protested last weekend — and the police presence even more imposing.

Aleksei Zhemchuzhnikov, a civic activist, said chains of riot police officers with full body armor and shields were deployed for the first time, cordoning off sections of the city center. Mobile internet access was cut off, he said.

“For Irkutsk, this was a first,” Mr. Zhemchuzhnikov said of the police response. “They were scared.”

Still, no signs have emerged of support for the protesters within the government, the Parliament, big business or the security services, which all remain firmly in Mr. Putin’s grasp. Fissions in the elite, nowhere to be seen at least on the surface in Russia, have been pivotal in the success of street movements in other former Soviet states.

In Moscow, Mr. Navalny’s team guided protesters on an evasive, zigzagging route to avoid police barricades. It encouraged them to stay together, in larger and harder-to-arrest crowds. Well before the protests began, the police sealed off much of the city center to pedestrians and shut down subway stops around the Kremlin — a crowd-control tactic used for the first time in recent years.

“Try not to leave the major streets and stay in large groups,” Mr. Navalny’s team instructed the protesters, using the messaging app Telegram. “Remember, the more of us there are, the more difficult it is for police to do anything.”

The mainly young protesters, following the Navalny social-media accounts on their phones, in many cases turned and followed the team’s directions — which led them toward the jail where Mr. Navalny was being held. The police, wielding shields and batons, tried to break the crowd into smaller groups and detain protesters after pushing them into walls and fences.

In chaotic scenes, police officers arrested people trying to hide in backyards and in the entryways to apartment buildings. By early evening, the Tass state news agency reported that the police were checking courtyards and apartment buildings for stragglers.

The harsher tactics were redolent of the protests in Belarus, where President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko used fierce police might to put down demonstrations after fraudulent elections last summer. The Russian police on Sunday did not use Mr. Lukashenko’s toughest methods — which included stun grenades and rubber bullets — but they seemed to echo his strategy of defusing dissent not by dialogue, but by brute force.

In St. Petersburg, a reporter for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta posted a video of police officers dragging an unconscious protester into a police van after a “harsh detention.” Reports of officers in plain clothes beating protesters surfaced in two provincial cities, Kursk and Volgograd.

On Moscow’s grand Garden Ring, the city center’s main circular thoroughfare, Lyudmila Mikhailovna, the retired pediatrician, glowered at the phalanx of burly officers in front of her.

She said that she had been going to protests since the Gorbachev era, but that, despite repeated disappointment, would continue to “so that my children and grandchildren don’t have to live in a greedy police state.” She added, “Things now are just intolerable.”

Oleg Matsnev and Sophia Kishkovsky contributed research.

Anton Troianovski is the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times. He was previously Moscow bureau chief of The Washington Post and spent nine years with The Wall Street Journal in Berlin and New York. More about Anton Troianovski

Andrew E. Kramer is a reporter based in the Moscow bureau. He was part of a team that won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for a series on Russia’s covert projection of power. More about Andrew E. Kramer

Ivan Nechepurenko has been a reporter with the Moscow bureau since 2015, covering politics, economics, sports, and culture in Russia and the former Soviet republics. He was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia. More about Ivan Nechepurenko

Andrew Higgins is the Moscow bureau chief. He was on the team awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting, and led a team that won the same prize in 1999 while he was Moscow bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal. More about Andrew Higgins

• International

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny dies, prison service says

By Sophie Tanno, Karl de Vries , Sana Noor Haq, Zoe Sottile, Michael Williams, Adrienne Vogt and Matt Meyer , CNN

We've wrapped up our live coverage. You can read more about the reported death of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny by scrolling through the posts below.

Biden says he holds Putin responsible as Russians attend vigils for Alexey Navalny. Here's the latest

From CNN staff

US President Joe Biden was unequivocal Friday in laying blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin for the reported death of opposition figure Alexey Navalny , saying regardless of the details still to come, "Make no mistake: Putin is responsible."

Biden's comments came as Russians risked detention Friday night in Moscow and elsewhere across the country, attending rallies and vigils in Navalny's honor.

Navalny had been  serving multiple sentences  in a maximum security prison for fraud, extremism and other charges he denied as politically motivated. He was arrested shortly after returning to Russia following his recovery from a 2020 poisoning attempt that nearly killed him.

A chorus of European leaders have also been quick to blame the Putin regime. Russia's prison service, which reported the death Friday, says " all necessary measures " were taken to save Navalny after he "felt unwell after a walk," and that an investigation is underway.

Here's the latest:

• More from Biden: Biden said the US doesn't yet know "exactly what happened, but there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did." The US president said the opposition leader had "bravely stood up to the corruption, the violence, and all the bad things that the Putin government was doing." He also said reports of Navalny's death should galvanize the United States to provide funding for Ukraine in the war against Russia. Elsewhere in Washington, Sens. Dick Durbin, a Democrat, and Bill Cassidy, a Republican, will introduce a bill to rename a section of a street near the Russian ambassador's residence "Alexei Navalny Way."
• Dozens detained in Russia: At least 100 people have been detained across Russia for  attending vigils and rallies  following Navalny's death, according to  OVD-Info , a human rights group that monitors Russian repression. Rallies sprung up in cities from Rostov-on-Don to St. Petersburg and the capital of Moscow. Many Muscovites who spoke to CNN on Friday described a sense of hopelessness. "You begin to have a desire to leave because you stop believing in positive changes," said Artur, a 27-year-old biologist interviewed by Agence France-Presse.
• Analysis: CNN's  Nick Paton Walsh  said Navanly's death comes at an unexpected time  for Russia and the Kremlin. It does not seem that Putin needed Navalny to die now. The dissident’s voice had been quieted as he served time on the Arctic circle. "Yet still, Vladimir Putin felt a degree of threat," Paton Walsh wrote . News of Navalny's death came shortly before Russia's presidential election, scheduled to take place on March 17, where Putin is widely expected to win a fifth term.
• Dive deeper: You can review Navalny's life in photos and view this timeline of key events for the opposition figure. The CNN film chronicling the attempted assassination of Navalny in 2020 airs Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on CNN and is  streaming on Max .

This post has been updated with the latest total of people detained at protests and vigils.

Hillary Clinton says Navalny's death is a warning to those who think they can "make a deal" with Putin

From CNN's Niamh Kennedy

Alexey Navalny's reported death sends a strong message to people in the United States who think they can "somehow make a deal" with Russian President Vladimir Putin, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN.

Clinton described the Russian opposition figure's death as "tragic" in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

Clinton said she had become well-acquainted with Navalny's daughter and wife .

The former secretary of state said Navalny's death sends a message to "people in Europe and in the United States" who "think that you can somehow make a deal with Putin." 

"A dictator, as (Putin) is, intends only to dominate — and if that means killing your opposition, as he's done with so many people over so many years, or invading a peaceful neighbor and trying to bend it to his will, that's what he will do," she added. 

Over 100 detained across Russia for attending Navalny vigils, says human rights group

From CNN’s Eve Brennan and Uliana Pavlova

At least 100 people have been detained across Russia for attending vigils and rallies following the reported death of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, according to OVD-Info , a human rights group that monitors Russian repression.

There have been detentions across the country, including in Murmansk, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod and St. Petersburg.

At the many vigils across the country, people paid their respects to Navalny, including laying down flowers and carrying posters, social media and news agency videos show. Police are also seen walking some attendees into police vans. 

It's unclear how many people have been detained. OVD-Info reports some of those detained have already been released. 

The office of the prosecutor in Moscow warned Russians earlier Friday that demonstrations in the capital were not authorized and that attendees could be placed under administrative arrest.

This post has been updated with the latest total of Russians detained.

Navalny had denounced Russia's invasion of Ukraine from prison. Read up on war developments here

From CNN's Haley Britzky, Olga Voitovych and Nadine Schmidt

Since he was imprisoned in 2021, Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine  via social media and encouraged anti-war protests across the country.

The reported death of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most high-profile critic  punctuates a crackdown on dissidence in Russia that has accelerated during the war.

Here’s the latest on Russia's war in Ukraine:

Attacks continue: At least five people were killed and five injured in Russian attacks in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Donetsk regions of Ukraine in the past 24 hours, local officials said Friday.

Frontline battle:  Ukraine’s Third Separate Assault Brigade said at least 15,000 enemy troops are fighting on the front line in the town of Avdiivka , located in the eastern Donetsk region. Russia has been pummeling the town with airstrikes and artillery, while launching wave after wave of ground assaults by armored vehicles and soldiers. Ukraine’s new army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov this week visited soldiers on the front lines there.

A senior US defense official said Friday that Ukrainian forces fighting in Avdiivka are “running short on critical supplies, particularly ammunition.”  

Uncertain future: The senior US defense official issued a stark warning on Friday that if Congress does not approve more funding for security assistance to Ukraine, the US will not be able to provide Ukraine more air defenses, which will lead to more cities being "bombarded."

“We will see more civilians dying, and we will see Ukraine struggling to protect their critical infrastructure and their forward line of troops,” the official said, of allowing funding to lapse.

Cost of war:  The US estimated the war in Ukraine has cost Russia up to $211 billion in efforts to upkeep operations, a senior defense official told reporters on Friday, and it has cost Russia an expected $1.3 trillion in lost economic growth. 

All of that is in addition to personnel losses, the official said. Officials estimate Russian forces have lost 315,000 people. The official also said Ukrainian forces have “sunk, destroyed, or damaged” at least 20 “medium-to-large Russian Federation Navy vessels” and one Russian tanker in the Black Sea.

Agreement with Germany: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday secured new military aid and signed a long-term security agreement with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin. The security agreement, which will last for 10 years, commits Germany to supporting Ukraine with military aid and hitting Russia with sanctions and export controls, and ensuring that Russian assets remain frozen.

The latest battleground map:

"Hope dies": Muscovites react to reports of Navalny's death

From CNN’s Eve Brennan

Moscow residents reacted to the news of Alexey Navalny’s reported death on Friday, with some describing it as “fate” while others said they are “shocked."

Some Muscovites laid flowers and a photo of Navalny at a makeshift memorial in the Russian capital, according to Reuters footage.

Valeria , a 23-year-old tour guide, called Navalny a "symbol" in an interview with Agence France-Presse.

"First of all, a symbol of opposition, a symbol of hope for some brighter future for Russia. And there's a feeling that with his death, this hope dies. If there had been still been any hope left, it is even less now than it was before," she said.

Artur , a 27-year-old biology student, told AFP:

Vladimir, an 84-year-old former psychologist, called Navalny "a simply fundamental element of life for us."

Moscow resident Alexander told Reuters he thought Navalny’s death was “expected," adding, "The news said he was being kept in bad conditions that weren't fit to live in."

Meanwhile, Muscovite Tatiana said: “Anything can happen in life. I think it's fate, honestly.”

“It's not political or anything. I think that ... it's a shame. I'm shocked and upset. It's a shame for the family. He was a young man, should have lived a long time,” she added.

Another Moscow resident, Mikhail , said he believes “enemies” of Russia “should be dealt with, the sooner the better.”

“Glory to our world freedom and our president,” he said.

Navalny's supporters: Navalny garnered a sizable support base during his political career, organizing anti-government street protests, and using his blog and social media to expose alleged corruption in the Kremlin and in Russian business.

He and his supporters claimed his arrest and incarceration in 2021 were politically motivated, intended to muzzle his dissent against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

CNN's Anna Chernova, Niamh Kennedy and Christian Edwards contributed reporting.

Moscow prosecutor's office warns protests related to Navalny's death are not authorized

The prosecutor's office in Moscow has warned that any demonstrations in the Russian capital over the reported death of Alexey Navalny have not been authorized. 

In a statement posted on its official website Friday, the prosecutor addressed individuals considering participating in a "mass action" in Moscow city center. 

"We draw attention to the fact that this mass event has not been coordinated with the city's executive authorities in accordance with the procedure established by law," the prosecutor stressed. 

The prosecutor warned that both appeals to participate and participation in unauthorized mass actions constitute offenses under Russian law and could result in individuals being placed under administrative arrest. 

In pictures: Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny

From CNN Digital's Photo Team

Jailed Russian opposition figure and outspoken Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny  has died at the age of 47 , the Russian prison service said Friday.

Navalny "felt unwell after a walk" and "almost immediately" lost consciousness, the prison service said. It said it was investigating his "sudden death."

Navalny had long been a thorn in the side of President Vladimir Putin, exposing corruption in high places, campaigning against the ruling United Russia party, and orchestrating some of the biggest anti-government protests seen in recent years.

He returned to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he had been treated after being poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent. Upon his return, he was swiftly arrested on charges he dismissed as politically motivated.

US President Joe Biden and several European leaders have been quick to blame Putin for Navalny's death, though the exact circumstances remain unknown.

See more photos from Navalny's life here.

Timing of Navalny's death suggests Putin "felt a degree of threat," CNN journalist says

From CNN's Nick Paton Walsh and Sana Noor Haq

In the weeks preceding Alexey Navalny's reported death on Friday, concerns for his welfare intensified after he was taken to a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle.

The timing of his death is significant "because it shows us something about how (Russian President) Vladimir Putin feels at this particular time," according to CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.

"Navalny was pretty much as far out of the way as you could put him," he told CNN's This Morning on Friday. "He was out, it seems, of the political arena. He never really got a foothold in the electoral process ... yet still, Vladimir Putin felt a degree of threat."

It came shortly before Russia's presidential election, scheduled to take place on March 17, where Putin is widely expected to win a fifth term in a move that would see him retain power until at least 2030.

European leaders blame Putin: The exact circumstances of Navalny's death are unknown, but "we are hearing leading European politicians pointing the finger at the Kremlin," added Paton Walsh. A growing chorus of European leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky , Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics and Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre have already cast blame on Moscow.

"Ultimately, you could not have a more sore reminder of the urgency of the danger that Vladimir Putin places to Europe with the Ukraine war entering into its third year, and to his own population in that autocratic environment," Paton Walsh said.

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