Long distance preparation

Sailors are preparing themselves for the gruelling Archipelago Raid due to start on Monday.

This week all competitors from 11 countries will arrive in Sweden to prepare for the 2006 Archipelago Raid. Next Monday 26 June the sixth edition of this five day quest through beauty will start in Stockholm.

Race Director and initiator Christine Salen-Guillou is thrilled about this year’s event. “We have introduced a slightly different format for the competition. We planned this year’s event just after midsummers. This means it will almost stay light for the whole five days of battling through the extraordinary beauty. This will allow us to take the competitors all the way to the Finland Archipelago and back if the weather permits,” he said.

American David Scully, a competitor in this year’s Archipelago Raid sailing with Per Westergren as Team Voltaren said: “The Archipelago is a place of extraordinary natural beauty. It is a very challenging and an interesting place to sail this extreme race.” Scully has competed twice before and is convinced that good boat speed in variety of conditions, local knowledge, navigational skills on an open 18 foot catamaran, endurance and great fitness are all key factors in the race. “Our strong point is familiarity with endurance racing and physical fitness,” Scully added.

The 2004 winner from England Will Sunnucks will sail with Mark Self in Team X-Leisure. They are used to sailing catamarans for long distance races and it shows. The two Brits are one of the favourites as they know how to sail Formula 18’s really fast and are used to the extraordinary endurance aspect of this race.

The Yamaha Blue team are Gunnar Larsen and Gerhard van Geest, who are Dutch catamaran guru’s. They grew up on two hulls together and are among one of the best in the world in the Formula 18 class. Dutch, Belgium and British national champions in the F-18, second at European Championships in 1998 and 1999 and winner of the Round Texel race in 1999 this pair are very experienced in this boat. Together they also sailed the Pre-Olympics in Sydney in 1999 on the Tornado.

The home favorite is Magnus Woxen from Sweden who sails with Damian Foxhall from Ireland. Both come straight from Ericsson in the Volvo Ocean Race to take on the grueling 500 miles of the Archipelago raid. “We will not have a lot of training time in the Formula 18, probably a maximum of 30 minutes this time I am afraid. My results are on a sliding scale, with a first, second and fourth. It is going to be very tough but also very nice to be back home in the extraordinary sailing arena of the Archipelagos,” said Woxen.

One of the other race favorites is a team from France formed by the very experienced Eric Proust and Gérard Navarrin. Navarrin sailed the Archipelago Raid in 2004 together with Yves Bourgnon where they finished sixth. Navarrin raced around the world on Cheyenne in 2005 but was also World Champion in the Formula 18 in 1997, he has also crossed the Atlantic on a Formula 18. His crew, Eric Proust, is also a world class Formula 18 specialist.

German Formula 18 specialists Thomas and Michael Walther are back again for the second time, after they got hooked last year. “A breathtaking place of extraordinary beauty, wonderful for sailing this event,” Thomas said after last year’s Archipelago Raid. They believe physical fitness, a good relationship on the boat and great navigational skills are important for a good performance.