Rock dodging

We talk to Will Sunnucks about the long distance Archipelago Raid

Perhaps one of the oddest events in the small boat sailing world is set to begin this Friday in Stockholm. The Archipelago Raid (dubbed the ‘Quest through beauty’ by the organisers) is a long distance race that takes place in F18 Catamarans and runs over the course of six days and nights, covering between 300 and 500 miles. Teams race to be the first to just under 30 checkpoints in and around the 100,000 Scandinavian Islands. The race goes from Stockholm, through Åland and the Finnish Archipelagos - and across an open stretch of the Baltic Sea for 33 miles between the autonomous Åland islands, and the northern point of the Stockholm Archipelago. In short this is perhaps the small boat adventure race to end all small boat adventure races.

Now into its eighth year the Raid has become a must do event for a variety of different sailors. In addition to long distance catamaran racers the regatta also attracts big boat sailors, match racers solo sailors and many more from all aspects of the sport looking for a new personal challenge. This year there is likely to be a significant amount of coverage given to Ellen MacArthur as she attempts the event for the second time. However, another British sailor will be sailing the event for the third time, having taken overall victory on his first attempt in 2004, also becoming the first foreign sailor to win it.

Will Sunnucks is a relatively well known name on the catamaran racing scene having been heavily involved in the Tornado and F18 classes for some time. He has an impressive set of long distance catamaran results behind him including the fifth at the Worrell 1000 in 2000, second in the Amber Cup in 2001, seventh In the Tybee 500 in 2002 as well as his previous win and fifth position in the Archipelago in recent years. His teammate his year year on cat ‘X-Leisure’ is Simon Farren.

For many the attraction of long distance sailing can be born out in keelboats going offshore and the thought of sailing such a long way in what is essentially a beach cat can be extremely daunting. Sunnucks does not see the distance as an issue at all and believes the 18s are more than up to the job. “They can go long distances relatively safely and very fast and it is something no other dinghies can do,” he told TheDailySail from Stockholm. “In the case of the Archipelago in particular, I do not think you would want to do it in big boats because we go among so many rocks!”

In spite of the distances involved Sunnucks says the event is not as strenuous as one might originally imagine. He does freely admit it is tougher than doing a championship of round the cans sailing for a week but adds that those taking part are far from superheroes. However, Sunnucks is also keen to point out that to him the additional physical and mental exertion is worth it when it comes to how much more he gets out of the Raid. “When you do round the cans racing, you might travel half way around the world to do a regatta, but you end up feeling you only sailed on five square miles of water and the rest of it has not been seen. By contrast when we finish this race we will feel like we have seen Åland, something of Finland and quite a bit of Sweden,” he enthuses.

In addition to his passion for long distance racing, this type of sailing has also made round the cans racing seem a little less fun for Sunnucks. He makes the case to us that now, when he races in an F18 regatta he does not feel like he is using the full potential of the boat.



Of course one of the most challenging aspects of the race, and something that would be particularly new to any dinghy sailor taking part, is the navigation needing to be done while racing. “The organisers always supply charts but they are quite big and heavy and much too detailed,” Sunnucks explains. “This year for the first time we are allowed chart plotters so we are going to leave the charts behind, I think, and take a Garmin chart plotter tucked into a little pocket in the front of our lifejackets.”

A chart plotter will make life easier than trying to check large detailed charts flapping about on the tramp but we still struggle to understand how you might go about navigating on an F18 screaming along at close to 20 knots. “A lot of people think that you are best off just keeping up with the front group most of the time so there is a lot of following that goes on,” Sunnucks says. “People do not really want to stop and navigate. I think quite often you could do a better course if you just had time to sit down and navigate but it seems to pay to stay in a group and not stop or ease off.” Of course this attitude to the race can cause some rather comical mistakes in navigation. “Occasionally someone will realise the group is heading the wrong direction and will hare of in a different direction and then everyone else will check, turn round and follow him.”

In truth Sunnucks says the navigation is not really as hard as you might originally imagine. “Of course you have your basic course, so you know you are heading to wherever the next point is and you know roughly which direction that is in. We have spent a great deal of time trying to memorise the charts as much as possible. We have spent hours and hours going over them again and again. We have made up some very simple and light, laminated chats that do not have a great amount of detail,” he adds. The benefits of doing it this way is because it is easy to grab one and get a fair idea of where you should be going just by glancing at it, again this must be a bonus in a fast beach cat like the F18.

Sunnucks also has the distinct advantage when it comes to navigating of having done the race on two separate occasions before. As we have mentioned the first time he took part he managed to win the event. However, the second time he came a disappointing fifth. “The second time it was a lot colder [than the first] and we did not take enough kit with us. We got really seriously cold over on the Finnish side and started making some serious mistakes because of that so we ended up fifth in that one.”

Making predictions about who might be in with a good shot of winning this year is obviously something Sunnucks is fairly reluctant to do. He says there is a fair element of luck involved in the race as the chances of hitting a rock and breaking the dagger boards and or the casing is extremely high: “I really do not know how well we might do. There are a few high profile names here. Ellen McArthur has turned up and Conrad Humphries came over with us, there is a young Swedish Olympic 470 crew here - I can see them at the minute posing for sponsor photos - and they might do quite well if it is light.”

Of course with the event taking place in F18s there is also the difficulty of selecting which type of F18 you want to use. Unsurprisingly, the criteria for boat selection is slightly different for an event such as the Archipelago Raid. “This year we are on a Nacra Infusion. I won it on a Tiger and I did it the second time on a Capricorn. We thought that the Capricorn was not big enough and buoyant enough for the downwind in heavy weather. The Nacra is a bigger more powerful boat and feels and has a lot more volume in it,” he confims.

With the event beginning Friday the teams are now all in Stockholm preparing to take on this impressive challenge. We at TheDailySail will be following the racing from start to finish. Once again we wait with baited breath to see who will win one of the hardest, and one of our favourite, small boat events in the world.

Entries:

Team Name	Helm/Crew	Nationality
N/A	Andre/Vercio	GER/ITA
N/A	Barkelius/Gattberg	SWE/SWE
Berotec	Rosenquist/Hellberg	NED/SWE
BT	MacArthur/Homann	GBR/AUS
Cottonfield	Romppanen/Kiiski	FIN/FIN
First hotels	Aasberg/Ask	DEN/DEN
GB Glace	Almquist/Berg	SWE/SWE
HH Marin	Ekefalk/Söder	SWE/SWE
N-Group	Nieminen/ Nieminen	FIN/FIN
One Design Center	Hållsten/Hanes	SWE/SWE
RBSC - Huysman	Demesmaeker/Proot	GER/GER
Stelacon	Linder/Petersson	SWE/SWE
N/A	Sundström/Lagerqvist	SWE/SWE
Sundvalls Bygg AB	Ekman/Tempelman	SWE/SWE
N/A	Persson/Westergren	SWE/SWE
Team Blue Oceans	Humphreys/Crawford	GBR/GBR
Team Garmin	Bäck/Morin	SWE/SWE
Team Kalix	Proust/Motteau	FRA/FRA
Team NCC	Berensson/Wadstein	SWE/SWE
Team Thule	Strandberg/Örtendahl	SWE/SWE
X-Leisure	Sunnucks/Farren	GBR/GBR
ÅBIT	Haals/Barck	Aland/Aland

To follow the racing as it happens visit the Archipelago Raid website, here .