More destruction

As three more legs are sailed in the Archipelago Raid

The name of the last checkpoint of the day, Paradiset, could sum up all of what we are seeing in this year's Archipelago Raid: a sightseeing paradise and a paradise for sailing and racing hard. But sadly there is absolutely no space or time to relax in the Archipelago Raid. The Raid today provided two more legs full of incidents…right from the start.

At 7am this morning the fleet started to sail from Mariehamn, the main city of the Åland archipelago to Arsläjan, back in the Swedish islands across the Åland Sea.

It was clear from from the beginning that it would be a day full of excitement. Matti Nieminen, skipper of Team Ursuit, fell to the water right on the line, but managed to rejoin his brother Micko onboard.

Several other teams got into trouble today, especially during leg 6 in the afternoon, with different issues resulting in two, Team W4 and Sweden 42, being obliged to withdraw from the leg. Unfortunately SWE 558 and Team Premiere had to retire from the race as a whole as they are unable to repair damage to their hulls, as was the case with Team Wipak yesterday.

The good news is the return of the Belgian team FG Porsche which will be on the starti line tomorrow.

Today’s two exciting legs were raced in a steady southerly breeze. The legs from Mariehamn to Arsläjan and from there to Norra Stavsudda were won by Team Audio Networks and Citus, two of the candidates for overall victory this year. Thule was also in the battle as they have been all week. But today there was a new contender in Mc Donalds Huysman. Belgian Patrick Demesmaekerr and crew Michel Proot posted a fourth, a fifth and a second - their best day so far.

With today’s results the overall standings are led by Team Citus on 162 points and Audio Networks on 159.5 with the final podium position taken by Thule on 155.5.