Up and away

Archipelago Raid sets sail

On Monday competitors in the ninth Archipelago Raid left Lidingö and Stockholm behind them, the 26 catamarans taking advantage of the 8 and 12 knot westerly wind to head northeast out into the Stockholm Archipelago.

Although almost half of the teams are Swedish, it was three foreign teams that came off best immediately following the race start at 14.45 this afternoon. Team Cobalt, of British sailors Luke Yeats and Conrad Humphries, was first to cross the starting line and head downwind, with the FG Porsche crew, Belgians Francis Proot and Simon Van Acker, in second. Nipping at their heels in third position were Team Audio Networks of British sailors William Sunucks and Simon Farren. It payed off to be close to the pin with Team FG Porsche briefly taking the lead at the second rounding for the start of the tack back up to Kyrkviken and the run to the first checkpoint at Bogesund.

The first phase of the race ends in the Stockholm archipelago, after which, early on Tuesday morning, the boats must cross Ålands Hav over to Åland and Finland. They will be back in Swedish waters on Friday when the boats reach Sandhamn. On Saturday afternoon the exhausted crews will finish right back where they started, outside Lidingö in Stockholm, by which time they will have logged over 500 miles of sailing.