Archipelago Raid - Swedes lead

9:39 AM Fri 21 Aug 2009 GMT

'Archipelago Raid' ThMartinez / Sea & Co &copy

Swedes lead the Archipelago Raid fleet.

Swedish Team Thule Strandberg/?rtendahl is increasing their lead doing 18 knots of boat speed in the strong southerly breeze. The wind has picked up since the start this morning and is averaging on 20 knots. Some boats have capsized due to the fairly rough conditions. Among them Team Audi Lewander/Thorslund and Team Blue Humphreys/Crawford that spent some time recuperating afterwards but then came back in the race.

Team McDonald Huysman and team w4 also went on the nose. The fleet is now reduced by another two boats and 21 boats are now in the race.
Conditions are again fantastic, good breeze, sunny and clear - what else could you ask for?

Nice Friday morning start

The teams gave the best of themselves in a very intense start of leg 7 this morning off Norra Stavsudda. A southerly 10 knots breeze helped the show. It was clear that the overall leaders wanted to start strong with just two days to go. Citus did the best start in the right side of the line, while in the pin side it was the German team W4 who got the best spot.

Thule passed in front of the bow of half the fleet right over the line. The wind picked up slowly afterwards to some 16 knots. Citus held their lead in the three first checkpoints, but followed very closely by Thule. The Swedish are far from giving up!

So far two teams have retired from the leg due to different problems and are sailing straight to the finish in Grinda. They are Ursuit and SWE 49.