RAID!!!!
by Jake on Aug.01, 2007, under Miscellaneous
The 2007 Archipelago Raid is underway! As far as catamaran distance racing goes, this is a whole different game compared to what we do for the Tybee 500. This type of racing is really setup for media and will be interesting to see how it continues to grow. The competitors in the Raid compete among very difficult water to navigate with many shallows, small islands, and lots of submerged rocks. Paddling is allowed but with only the mainsail (or less) hoisted – jibs and spinnakers must be down/furled/snuffed if you intend to paddle. At the start of the leg, the teams are informed if the next checkpoint will be a three minute or one hour stop with three to six hour stops at HQ’s (from the time the FIRST TEAM ARRIVES). Sleep and time for boat maintenance will be hard to come by for the competitors and the boat better be in terrific working order with many readily available spares. This is about as grueling as sailing can be.
Shown here is a Tiger sailing with some new technology…that’s a funny looking mast! I think that’s called a “perturbulated Singman Rig” (the crew’s name is Singman). Go to Archipelagoraid.com for more.
Some video from 2006 (too bad they spoke over the original english language commentary)
