French duo extend

As competitors paddle hard between Finnish islands at the half way point of the Archipelago Raid

The question is what’s worst - hard paddling in light wind or hard sailing in strong wind? The tired sailors get even more worn out of todays massive paddling, but enjoy fantastic nature in the outer archipelago of Finland. The adventure continues, and the young Frenchmen maintain their lead.

Thursday and day four in the Archipelago Raid starts with another magnificent morning and a stunning sunrise in Lappo, out in the Finnish archipelago. The first leg between Lappo and Jungfruskär could have been one of those rudder-wrecking legs, but the sailors preferred to play it safe and not sorry following the marked channels as much as possible. This is the tactics of the French team on the leading boat Outils Océan, and also for the rest most of the time.

The sailors are tired now, with less than half of the Archipelago Raid remaining. They have over two days of marathon sailing left.

The non-Scandinavians in particular are thrilled by the fantastic nature surrounding them. The Finnish archipelago has some magic sights. One of today's checkpoints was on the rough beaches of the beautiful island of Jurmo and from here the course continued on past Fårö, where one hours' well deserved rest awaited. The sailors staggered ashore on the beach, wet and tired after a lot of paddling on the previous leg due to the light wind. To paddle is necessary to keep up the speed, which means little rest during the Raid.

"My arms are finished! Too much paddling," complains the otherwise constantly smiling and positive Hanse Thorslund on Tidermans.

He and Anders Lewander have kept their place among the top five all along, but sailed in in seventh on the Fårö checkpoint. Right now they are fourth overall with 68,5 points. Two French teams share second place. Yamaha Yamarin with Eric Proust and Yann Andrillon together with Finn Patrick Blom and Kasimir Johansson on ICOM, with 70,5 points each. The French sailor Thibaut Vauchel and Jeremie Lagarrigue on Outils Océan are hard to beat and continue to increase their lead.

In the rest of the fleet the teams have changed positions several times during the day. GB Glace with Bengt Nissar and Jan Schiratzki, who was first at the very first checkpoint in the competition slipped down the results table afterwards, was today's surprise. The Swedish duo stepped up their pace finishing in the top five.

The field is spread out with approximately two hours between the first and the last boat, but the leading five are constantly well ahead of the rest. The next stop is in Nagu in Finland, the most easterly checkpoint of this years Archipelago Raid, where the competitors are expected later on tonight.

Results at checkpoint 24 HQ 4 Nagu

Pos	Boat	Helm	Crew	Tot
1	Outils Oceans	Thibaut Vauchel (FRA)	Jeremie Lagarrigue (FRA)	104
2	Yamaha Yamarin	Eric Proust (FRA)	Yann Andrillon (FRA)	94
3	ICOM	Patrick Blom (FIN)	Kasimir Johansson (FIN)	93
4	Tidermans	Anders Lewander (SWE)	Hanse Thorslund (SWE)	87
5	Brossard	Yvan Bourgnon (FRA)	Olivier Gagliani (BEL)	82
6	Yamaha Finnmaster	Björn Hansen (ÅLD)	Tore Lewander (ÅLD)	73
7	Team PWA	Bo Ehrhardt (DEN)	Mads Ehrhardt (DEN)	71
8	Ledstiernan	Johan Gnosspelius (SWE)	Roger Bodén (SWE)	65
9	Team Sport Mohr	Thomas Walther (GER)	Michael Walther (GER)	64
10	Metro Hus&Hem/Novo Nordisk	Thomas Ekefalk (SWE)	Per Isacsson (SWE)	56
11	GB Glace	Bengt Nissar (SWE)	Jan Schiratzki (SWE)	56
12	Tieto Enator	Thomas Hacklin (FIN)	Joonas Björkman (FIN)	49
13	Stelacon	Lars Linder (SWE)	Ronny Haals (ÅLD)	46
14	Hobiecat.se	Jens Österlund (SWE)	Greg Holmann	45
15	Sitescanner	Olle Bodelius (SWE	Johan Magnusson (SWE)	40
16	Aktivitetsteamet	Petter Åström (SWE)	Robert Albinsson (SWE)	37
17	Team 40+	Fredrik Karlsson (SWE)	Gustaf Nyblaeus (SWE)	37
18	Yamaha Buster	Michael Schibbye (SWE)	Fredrik Brusewitz (SWE)	37
19	The Little Gym	Karl Brodin (SWE)	Mårten Bäckman (SWE)	29
20	Team Powerbar	David Scully (USA)	Claire Bailey (GBR)	28
21	HH Marin	Carl-Johan Söder (SWE)	Petter Elmstedt (SWE)	22
22	Yamaha Waverunner	Charles-Etienne Devanneaux (FRA)	Peter Desmedt (BEL)	16
23	Netigate	Fredrik Hansen (SWE)	Jonas Engstedt (SWE)	16