Big breeze and fog

Day two of the Archipelago Raid has been a gruelling test of endurance for the teams

It was a wild night at sea followed by a tough tactical game in the Archipelago Raid.
At exactly 04.00 hours the whole fleet restarted for leg two of this event. Fejan, the most northeastern point of the Stockholm Archipelago was under grey skies and it was raining. The sun was up at this hour but could not be seen.

The start was spectacular; this must have been a warning for the rest of the crossing to Åland. The wind was gusting up to 18 knots from the northeast. Team SPP (Bjorn Hansen SWE and Tore Lewander SWE) came flying of the line first.

Once around the first islands the fleet had to turn east and beat into the north-easterly wind for more than 32 nautical miles. Everybody knew this was going to be a very tough, long and treacherous crossing. The wind was around 20 knots with five-foot waves, and as soon as the 100.000 islands no longer protected the fleet, sailing became very difficult indeed. That must have been why the experienced cat sailors from France, Switzerland, England, Ireland and Holland were soon all in the top ten.

After beating for at least four and a half hours in big breaking waves on the leeward shore, the first team to arrive in the pouring rain in Rödhamn, was team Brossard with Yvan Bourgnon (SUI) and Olivier Gagliani (BEL). Team X-Leisure closely followed (Will Sunnucks and Mark Self GBR.) In third place were previous Raid winners Eric Proust and Gerard Navarin (FRA.) First Scandinavian was Round the World racer Magnus Woxen with his fellow Volvo Ocean Race mate from Ireland, Damian Foxhal. The leader of the overall rankings, team Tidermans (Lewander and Thorslund SWE) finished fourth.

Will Sunnucks winner of the 2004 edition said: “This was tough, we were both swept off the side of the boat several times, barely in control, but we were really fast today.” Sunnucks’ crew Mark Self said: “At one stage I thought, will we ever get to the other side?”

Yvan Bourgnon from Team Brossard, winners of leg two said: “This was like crossing a French channel in Brittany. A lot better than the paddling yesterday!” Team Yamaha Blue, who were sixth team in leg two Gunnar Larsen said: “These Volvo guys who were just in front of us are probably used to this, but to us this is quite challenging. We did some raids in Asia but they are far more relaxed than this one.”

During leg three the race had to be abandoned by the race committee due to thick fog. The leg got underway from Rödhamn at 11.00 hours. Another spectacular start in 15 – 18 knots of breeze under cloudy skies. The wind was predicted to die and back from northeast to northwest. While the fleet was racing again in between many beautiful islands and nameless rocks in the Åland Archipelago to first Checkpoint Degerö, the visibility got worse.

At that moment it was a very close race with places changing frequently. We saw the Scandinavian teams back in front of the fleet. But at the third checkpoint Sottunga race Director Christine Salén-Guillou had to shorten this leg. At that moment Team GB Glace (Bengt Nissar and Jan Schiratzki SWE) was in the lead and with that result they have now won two of the three legs.

The 21 remaining competitors in this crazy quest through beauty were towed to Nagu in the Finland Archipelago 40 miles further to the east. In Nagu a restart of leg four is planned as soon as possible after arrival if weather permits.

The most consistent performing team is Team Sogetti with Volvo Ocean Race fanatics Magnus Woxen (SWE) and Damian Foxall (IRL). They have been scoring an impressive series so far. With a second, third and second they are the only team to score in the top three in every leg so far. It appears a mix of local knowledge, perseverance, knowledge of the area, endurance and boat handling on these catamarans is a must. Who will threaten this team?