Waiting for the wind

Light conditions dominate the first proper day's racing in the Archipelago Raid

It was another perfect day on the Swedish archipelago today as the F18 fleet set off from Bjorno heading for Fejan some 40 miles North. It was the first official day’s racing today for the fleet after the prologue race yesterday gave the crews the first opportunity to line up against each other.

However with light wind making for a difficult start and heavy wind forecast it was difficult times for sailors and the race organisers alike. The lack of wind off the pristine beach of Bjorno made a tight start for the 28 strong fleet. But soon after the 9.30am start, the wind kicked in and the fleet took off for days racing through to Fejan in the Northern Archipelago. Off the start line it was Team Brossard who took an early lead with GB Glace close behind and one of the two Team Blue boats hot on their heels.

At the first and second checkpoint it was the Swedish teams who were making the impact with St Jude Medical (SWE) followed by Sundvalls Bygg (SWE) and GB Glace (SWE) but by the third checkpoint Sundvalls Bygg had taken the lead from St Jude Medical with GB Glace making up the top three.

The fleet are currently in the Bullero archipelago - where they are now waiting for the wind - which has around 900 islands, rocks and skerries. The landscape in this area is typical of both the central and outer archipelago.

Andrew Macpherson (AUS) commented: "Although the start wasn’t so good we did okay after that until we got past the second checkpoint. We sail fast and paddle slow so we slipped down a bit when we were into paddling... Now we are hoping for the wind to kick in but it is not looking hopeful for the near future."

Depending on the weather the teams will navigate a number more checkpoints throughout the day finishing on the island of Fejan in the Northern end of the Swedish Archipelago.

Scoreline

Team	Score
Sundvalls Bygg AB (Ekman/Tempelman)	31.5
St Jude Medical (Grape/Gnosspelius)	31
Nissan Hobiecat FRA (Mourniac/Citeau)	29
GB Glace (Nissar/Schiratzki)	28
Wippies (Karto/Öhman)	27
Team Thule (Strandberg/ Almstedt)	26
Catella Racing Team (Johanson/Gahmberg)	25
Nissan Hobicat SWE (Kjerstadius/Tempelman)	24
Nissan Hobicat GER (Gosche/Walther)	23
White Knuckle Express (Karlsson/Groth)	22
Brossard (Vauchel/Hennix)	21
Yamaha Red (Heemskerk/Tentji)	20
Team Proustsailing.com (Proust/Motteau)	19
Nissan Hobiecat FIN (Neuhaus/Koskenohi	18
RBSC (Demesmaeker/Thery)	17
Team Ocean (Bourgnon/Gagliani)	16
Team Musto Australia (Pellew/Macpherson)	15
Team Blue Oceans(Humphreys/Crawford)	14
Arc'Teryx (Hållsten/Ekefalk)	13
Voltaren(Westergren/Singman)	12
Brass Specialisten (Westergren/Westergren)	11
Karlberg Media AB (Karlberg/Brunnberg)	10
KTH(Söder/Rutberg)	9
Team Blue Climate (Eeles/Butterworth)	8
Acando (Fahlén/Ahlden)	7
Yamaha Blue (Scully/Bailey)	6
Team BEP Marine (Flynn/Middleweek)	5
Team class 40 NOR(Aasberg/Thoresen)	4
Yamaha Silver (Besson/Vandame)	0