Archipelago Raid - Start
by Daniel Ferrando 17 Aug 2009 21:48 BST
17-22 August 2009
The fleet starts the ninth annual Archipelago Raid © ThMartinez / Sea&Co /
www.thmartinez.com
Good start for the foreign teams at the Archipelago Raid
On Monday the fleet of competitors in the ninth annual Archipelago Raid left Lidingö and Stockholm rapidly to stern as the 26 catamarans took advantage of between 8 and 12 knots of westerly wind and headed 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, comprised of British sailors Luke Yeats and Conrad Humphries, was first to cross the starting line and head downwind, with the FG Porsche crew - Belgian sailors Francis Proot and Simon Van Acker - in second place. Nipping at their heels in third position were Team Audio Networks with British sailors William Sunucks and Simon Farren. It payed off to be close to the pin mark 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.
Conrad Humphreys blog
Last Breakfast...
Nice banter during breakfast, everyone has their own ideas about what
spares to take. The mood is upbeat as crews tuck into the last proper
breakfast. For the next 6 days the diet will be power bars and lucozade
gels.
The weather forecast is for the wind to die and I suspect we will have a
long paddle to Fejan. It could be a long one! After that it's anyone's
guess, the race organisers are keen for us to go north of Aland which
would put us over 60 degrees north, better pack some more thermals.
Crewman Ryan Crawford said: "Woke to the sound of rain on the tent and
breeze, now there's nothing. Not looking forward to paddling on day 1!"
More information on the event website.