30 of the best

Cat sailors make final preparations for this week's Archipelago Raid

It's time for the ninth Archipelago Raid - the world's greatest and most extreme orienteering sailing race, in which an international field of teams race through the Stockholm archipelago, Aland islands and Finnish archipelago aboard F18 catamarans. It's a tough and exhausting test of skill and stamina where complex navigation is made all the more difficult by the effects of sleep deprivation.

The race starts on 17 August and finishes on 22 August from the conference centre At Sea on the island of Lidingö outside Stockholm, where it will also finish.

The competition's uniqueness comes from the fact that the competitors must pick their way through the countless islands which the race route encompasses, briefly stopping at between 20 and 25 checkpoints along the way. A checkpoint could be a lighthouse, beach, dock or other geographical feature, and the racers can choose what they believe to be the fastest route between checkpoints. The main idea is for the race to be as mentally and physically stressful as possible, therefore some of the stages of the race are very long in order to necessitate round-the-clock sailing. There are occasional short stops, but any respite for the crews will be lessened by having to carry out maintenance on the boats. Sleep will be in short supply, snatched in the open air.

Thanks to the unique form of competition and the beautiful natural setting in which it takes place, the race has grown into a large and well-respected competition among the world's leading racing sailors.

This year more than 30 teams from 13 countries will be competing. Among the participants are Anders Lewander, who was skipper aboard Ericsson 3 during parts of the recently finished Volvo Ocean Race, and Olympic yachtsman and Swedish F18 champion Martin Strandberg. The Finnish Olympic gold medallist and helmsman of Ericsson 3, Thomas Johanson, is racing, as is Gustav Morin, who was media crew member aboard Ericsson 3 in the Volvo Ocean Race.

From the UK is past Archipelago Raid winner, Will Sunnucks while former Mini and Class 40 sailor, Phil Sharp has teamed up with former Slovenian Mini sailor Kristian Hajnsek. Volvo Ocean Race sailor Matt Humphreys, now based in Sweden is sailing with Luke Yeates while Vendee Globe skipper Conrad Humphreys is back again with Ray Crawford

Other notables competing include former ORMA 60 skipper, Yvan Bourgnon and maxi-multihull sailor, David Scully.

The line-up

Team Name	Crew	Nat
Audi	Anders Lewander/Hanse Thorslund	SWE
Audio Network	William Sunnucks/Simon Farren	GBR
Black or White	Maurizio Vettorato/Andrea Gancia	ITA
Citus	Eric Proust/Romain Motteau	FRA
Effet	Fenouil Samuel Vionnet/Andreas Schuler	SUI
GB Glace	Karin Almquist/Fredrik Aurell	SWE
Navylec	Yann Riou/David Sineau	FRA
Racing Marine	Richardson/McHugh	GBR/ITA
RBSC	Huysman Patrick Demesmaeker/Michel Proot	BEL
Rogue Sailors	Berensson/Tbc	SWE
SWE 042	Micael Edler/Martin Åkerlund	SWE
SWE 49	Fredrik Karlsson/Ricard Miedel	SWE
SWE 558	Ola Persson/Michael Persson	SWE
Tacktick SUUNTO	David Scully/Claire Bailey	US/GBR
Team Blue	Conrad Humphreys/Ryan Crawford	GBR
Team Cobalt	Luke Yeates/Matt Humphreys	GBR
Team Garmin	John Bäck/Gustav Morin	SWE
Team Piano	Agne Nilsson/Jason Field	NOR/GBR
Team Premiere Global Services	Grünert/Gravdal	NOR
Team w4	Michael Walther/Marcus Mattis	GER
THULE	Martin Strandberg/Johan Örtendahl	SWE
Ursuit	Matti Nieminen/ Mikko Nieminen	FIN
Zavarovalnica Triglav	Kristian Hajnsek/Phil Sharp	SLO/GBR
	Francis Proot/Simon Van Acker	BEL
	Janne Riihelä/Nora Eskola	FIN
	Martin Hållsten/Kalle Torlen	SWE
	Matt Eeles/Jamie Butterworth	GBR
	Yvan Bourgnon/Pierre Gauthier	FRA
	Thomas Johansson/ Brad Marsh	FIN/AUS