Too Much?

This year’s Archipelago Raid has quickly become a fierce battle against strong winds and abnormally difficult sailing conditions. The Archipelago Sea, with its stiff northerly breezes and rough waters, has been deemed too rough to race in and today the leg excursion into Finland was cancelled. Until then, it was a day of exciting sailing that started at 5 o’clock in the morning with almost 20 knots of northerly breeze leading to some very intense racing, with 5 boats capsizing and others colliding with rocks. Anders Lewander, skipper of Ericsson 3 in early legs of the recently finished Volvo Ocean Race, was amongst those who capsized, but managed to get back in the race only to have dire mainsail problems. Pic from Thierry Martinez and more here.