Extreme Sailing in Sweden - The Archipelago Raid

Stockholm, Sweden - Take a bunch of top sailors, put them on small Formula 18 catamarans, and send them out on a 6 day marathon race where they only know the next checkpoint as little as an hour before rounding the last one, and you have the extreme sailing and orienteering race known as the Archipelago Raid. Teams of two sailors must sail intensely, day and night, through a unique course of 20-25 of these checkpoints, strewn among 100,000 rocks and islands of the Stockholm, Åland and Finnish archipelago. For six days and five nights, with only brief stops for sleep before setting off again on the next leg, this race will test the strength and stamina of 44 extreme atheletes, in some of the most beautiful sailing grounds the world has to offer.

With many impressive sailing resumes among the teams - big boat sailors, match racers, and solo sailors from both monohulls and multihulls - sailing is expected to be highly competitive to the end. Dame Ellen MacArthur is among the fleet's most famous contenders, and the Hobie Cat Champion Eric Proust is returning to the archipelago Race for his fourth time. Solo sailor Conrad Humphries on Team Blue Oceans, back for the second time, was looking forward to starting the race: “We're very excited, it's nice to be here. The Raid is a beautiful combination between race and environment, which are my two passions. It's good to be here for the second time, we know more or less what to expect, we're more prepared.”

Day One saw the 22 teams of two set out from the city center of Stockholm - into the wilds of the Stockholm, Åland and Finnish archipelago - to the island of Lidö in the North-east. Starting in eight knots of wind and under overcast skies, the sun later came out for the fleet while the breeze picked up to 12-15. The race is based on a points system, determined by the arrival position of each main leg, plus bonus points to the winner of each checkpoint leg. The fleet stayed tight up to the first checkpoint, and then the varied lineup of competitors each tried to stretch out a lead for the leg to Lidö - with Team Kalix leading at the finish, and on the board.

The teams will have a short night in Lidö, and perhaps have time for a couple of hours of sleep before the restart tomorrow morning at 0300 (about an hour from this posting). The next leg has the fleet heading toward the autonomous islands of Åland, between Sweden and Finland, where the tiny, open craft will have to cross a 33 mile stretch of the Baltic Sea along the course.

Archipelago Raid Scores - Lidö

50 - Team Kalix (Proust/Motteau)

47.5 - Team Thule (Strandberg/Örtendahl)
46.5 - Sundvalls Bygg AB (Ekman/Tempelman)
44 - X-Leisure (Sunnucks/Farren)
44 - RBSC - Huysman (Demesmaeker/Proot)
40 - Team Garmin (Bäck/Morin)
37 - Team Blue Oceans(Humphreys/Crawford)
35 - SWE 558 (Persson/Westergren)
34 - HH Marin (Ekefalk/Söder)
34 - One Design Center (Hållsten/Hanes)
26 - Team GUL Sweden (Barkelius/Gattberg)
25 - N-Group (Nieminen/ Nieminen
25 - BT (MacArthur/Homann)
22 - Dare 2 (Andre/Vercio)
21 - Stelacon (Linder/Petersson)
20 - Berotec (Rosenquist/Willemse)
20 - GB Glace (Almquist/Berg)
12 - ÅBIT (Haals/Barck)
12 - Team NCC (Berensson/Wadstein)
10 - Cottonfield (Romppanen/Kiiski)
7 - Klinger (Sundström/Lagerqvist)
6 - First hotels (Aasberg/Ask)

Photos of the Archipelago Raid by Th. Martinez

- BH

• Video: Last years Archipelago Raid