What is Raid Finland?
Raid Finland is a yearly week long distance adventure race for 4.5-7.5m traditional and classic open craft powered by sail and oar. Raid Finland is fully catered and sails a new route every year.
What if you could...
Imagine a holiday without having to look for a restaraunt, or stores, spare parts for the engine, money machines, dirty dishes, fuel stations, anchorages, charts, gps, vhf, harbors... one you and your partner/friends can truly relax and just enjoy sailing. Remember when you had a small boat, that was just the thing to slip away for a quick adventure? The dream of the bigger boat turned out not like you planned with high slip fees, maintanence, and bills? All your friends are just are too busy to help you command your ”yacht” out of the harbor? Think back to days of owning a the small practical boat, something you remember enjoying, a boat that can make you feel young and free again. Their is a small movement of sailors that have slowly been turning back to their youth, towards the fun of just going sailing for a few hours, with the use the dream of Foriegn cruising grounds is now realistically reached with your small boat behind a trailer. Some of our past contenders have cruised a new country every year.
Mike Hanyi, the event’s founder and current director moved to Finland in 1997 after retiring from sailing classic yachts professionally. In 1999 Mike had Coquina II built, the first replica of Nat Herreshoff’s most used boat. Together with his Finnish wife Susa, summers were enjoyed “trailer-sailing” some of Finland’s incredible unspoilt waters. In 2001 the idea of organizing an international Raid started to materialize, after 8 months of strenuous planning the event came together.
In 2002 the 1st Raid Finland took place on Finland’s south coast. Starting in Helsinki, 19 boats from 12 countries departed on the one week adventure, taking the inner-coastal route visiting historic Porvoo, before ending in Lovisa in time for the towns Small Ship Race and the neighboring 4th Int’l Kotka wooden boat show. Participants enjoyed the one week of perfect sunshine, friends were made and in all, Raid Finland was a great success.
In 2003 the 2 nd Raid Finland took place on Finland’s west coast. It started near Pargas, and adventured into the Åland Archipelago visiting several remote communities before arriving in Naantali for the town’s yearly traditional boat festival.14 boats attended representing 12 countries including USA and Australia. The weather was fantastic, with water temperatures over 25; swimming was high on the agenda of the participants. We had a welcome bit of rain on 2 days and good wind the entire week. The overall opinion was the new route was a great encore to the 1st event.
In 2004 the Raid was run on the south-west coast. Matti Salo joined in to assist planning and running the event. Raid Finland’s continued to be an international success; Starting in Pohja, the event sailed East visiting memorable places such as Tammisaari, Jussaro, Inkoo and ending in Siuntio.
In 2005 the Raid was again on the west coast, now starting in Dalsbruk, and visiting the islands of Biskopsö, Rosala, and Vänö, before turning North for Pargas.
In 2006 we sailed the same route as 2002, with some small differences
Our past contenders came from France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Sweden, U.K.,USA., Italy, Australia, Austria, Russia, Switzerland, Canada, Hawaii and of course Finland.
Finland is a perfect place for a Raid, with over 10 000 mostly connected lakes, 1500 kms of protected shoreline and a truly remarkable archipelago - the possibilities are endless. Finnish summers bring almost 23 hours of daylight, and warm southwesterly winds. Finland is a boaters treasure with natural unspoiled shores that one can truly escape marinas and practically mankind
In total there have been over 10 international sail & oar Raids and the interest in these type events is growing. See our Link page for more information about Raids organized by other enthusiastic small classic boat associations.
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