Big winds batter Archipelago Raiders

A report from the F18 racing through the Swedish and Finnish archipelago

Since the restart of leg 3 at Fejan island yesterday evening, the competitors have experienced rough sailing throughout the night. The 13 teams still in the race have been fighting hard in the difficult conditions. At dusk the small boats had to negotiate a 33 mile stretch of open water to get to the next checkpoint in the Åland archipelago, part of Finland. The wind was picking up, in some stages blowing more than 20 knots. The boats were blasting away averaging 13 knots of boat speed in reaching conditions!

Dark clouds covered the Scandinavian night and it was almost pitch black when the competitors started navigating in the tricky Åland archipelago. The navigation is really difficult in this area as it comprises more or less only small islands without any major reference marks.

All teams made some navigational errors in the dark night and strong winds. Two boats went aground. Nynäs Havsbad hit one of the hulls quite severely and was forced to retire from the race. The other victim MacFreeze did not hit as badly and is still racing.

The boys on Realsailing were too tired to continue the adventure and retired early this morning. Two boats were far behind. Due to the strong swind they have not made it to the leg 3 head checkpoint at Mariehamn and are waiting for the wind to drop at another island close by.

In these dramatic conditions the racing has been tighter than ever for the frontrunners. The leading boats Sogeti (Woxén/Ardern) and Jobman Workwear (Hansen/Oserberg) were extremely close during the night. Flying through the night, side by side, they were mere seconds behind each other at the checkpoints, closely followed by Tidermans and the two Nokia teams.

Sogeti was first at the Rodloga checkpoint but Jobman Workwear, skippered by Bjorn Hansen, and a local from Åland, snatched the lead just before the finish of the leg at Mariehamn. Therefore they won the third leg right in front of Sogeti. Jobman Workwear and Tidermans are currently both leading the race with the equal number of points.

Nokia Adilstam is just one point behind and the tension is rising for the two remaining legs before the finish in Gustavsberg/Stockholm on Friday afternoon.

Neal and Lisa McDonald on Assa Abloy are still in the middle of the pack, currently 8th. In the dark night they missed the leg finish in Mariehamn and accidentally sailed past it! They had to turn around and were overtaken by the boat behind. “We just had a good three hours sleep here in Mariehamn, which was really needed after having slept one hour since the start of the race [last Tuesday at 08 GMT]. We have made some human errors, but mainly we were less strong on the paddling during the first days of light airs. The most difficult for us has been our broken GPS [satellite navigation system]. Last night we had to use our Suunto watches to navigate! We really enjoyed the fast sailing across the open sea and actually feel that we sail better this year than last year,” said Neal McDonald in good spirits. The McDonalds were third last year, and will have a hard time reaching the podium in this year’s edition.

The competitors are currently waiting in Mariehamn since early this morning, as the race organisers are waiting for the wind to drop before letting the competitors head to the exposed open stretch of water taking them back to the Stockholm archipelago. This allows the battered sailors to catch up on a little sleep as most of them only have slept 1-2 hours since the start last Tuesday morning. The time of the restart is currently not decided yet but will be in a few hours.

Rankings 10 July:
The Archipelago Raid is based on five legs. The teams gather a number of points depending on position on arrival at the last check point of each leg. So far the competitors have completed three legs and the rankings are:

Teams Leg 1 - points Leg 2 - points Leg 3 - points
Finish at Nynäs Havsbad Finish at Fejans Krog Finish in Mariehamn Total points Current Standing
Jobman Workwear 14 16 17 47 1
Tidermans 17 15 15 47 1
Nokia Adilstam 16 17 13 46 3
Sogeti 14 14 16 44 4
Macfreeze 12 13 12 37 5
Nokia Kempff 15 8 14 37 5
GB Glace 11 9 10 30 7
ASSA ABLOY 7 12 11 30 7
Suunto 9 6 8 23 9
Addicom 10 10 1 21 10
Playground 8 7 1 16 12
Nynäs Havsbad Retired 6 11 DNF 18 11
Realsailing Retired 1 DNF 1 2 13
Omega Retired 3 DNF 1 4 14

Teams:
Jobman Workwear Björn Hansen (Åland) and Björn Österberg (S)
Tidermans Anders Lewander (S) and Calle Hennix (S)
Nokia / Adilstam Fredrik Adilstam (S) and Tomas Marimon (S) – 2nd 2002
Sogeti Magnus Woxén (S) and Rodney Ardern (NZ) – Woxén winner 2002 with Klabbe Nylöf
Nokia / Kempff Joakim Kempff (S) and Magnus Nordström (S)
Macfreeze Anders Tengbom (S) and Fred Wikström (S)
GB Glace Bengt Jacobson (S) and Jan Schiratzki (S)
ASSA ABLOY Neal McDonald (GB) and Lisa McDonald (USA) – 3rd 2002
Suunto Stefan Engstrand (S) and Björn Scherrer (S)
Addicom Mikael Leksell (S) and Pontus Johansson (S)
Playground Petter Åström (S) and Jonas Engstedt (S)

Retired:
Omega Ellen MacArthur (GB) and Nick Moloney (AUS)
Realsailing Fredrik Hansen (S) and Christopher Ringhagen (USA/S)
Nynäs Havsbad Thomas Östergren (S) and Tore Lewander (S)