Three Peaks Yacht Race

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Three Peaks Yacht Race

Yacht: Dreamcatcher

The sailors: Derek Douglas (Skipper), Colin Kerr and Andy Kerr.

The runners: Mike Robson and R.G.

Had really good time doing the Three Peaks Yacht Race... The other guy doing the runs (Mike Robson) is not a hill runner, he does cycling, but did brilliantly well on the hills. I managed to get roped into this event via my boss, that's a long and convoluted story, so I'll say no more about it.

The race started on Saturday 26th July at 3.00pm in Barmouth, Wales. The maximum number of entries is 25 and all the boats are all monohulls. From Barmouth there's a 62 mile sea leg to Caernarfon - which was as rough as a very rough thing, designed to make the landlubber boak incessantly for hours. From Caernarfon we did a round trip of about 24 miles up one side of Snowdon and down the other. The summit was reached in darkness and rain, so no photos. On returning to the boat Colin soon had us fed and watered.

From Caernarfon we sailed 100 sea miles to Whitehaven - nae boaking as I soon realised that being horizontal in the bunk was the ideal way to avoid the alimentary gymnastics. Disembarking at Whitehaven we cycled about 15 miles to Ennerdale. Leaving the cycles at Gillerthwaite YH the course takes you over the hill into Wasdale (a marshall at Ennerdale gave us some tea and home baked cake, lovely at 1.30am!) and then up Scafell Pike. More darkness and thick clag, anyone who has tried shining a torch into thick clag will know that it pretty darn useless. We found the summit then proceeded to make a couple of navigational errors. The first error saw us making chums with an Israeli team who had done the same thing. We climbed back up and in a rush to try and get back on course started descending again. However, the gully we chose changed from very, very steep and wet to "Ha! Ha,! You're going to die human." So back up again and find the correct way off. Dark, clag, wet and miserable, so no photos. On returning to the bikes, Mike found a new lease of life and the cycle back to the boat was quick. And as you would expect the weather was now turning out very pleasant.

Back on the boat, Colin treated us to more lovely victuals and we handed over to the boys for the big sea leg of about 227 miles to Corpach.

At this point I should mention we were on the largest boat in the race, a 43 foot cruising yacht weighing about 13.5 tons, built by Nordship of Denmark (www.nordship.com). Note that nearly all the other yachts were built as racing yachts. I am told that large yachts of our type excel in winds over 20 knots, but in lesser winds there is no way we should beat lighter racers. This, the longest sea leg, was mostly undertaken in winds of about 8-12 knots. Having left Whitehaven in about 10th place, we reached Corpach in 4th position. What our yacht lacked in racing pedigree was more than made up for in the amazing seamanship of Derek, Colin and Andy.

Now it was down to Mike and me to finish, as the race finishes when the runners get up and down the Ben. We started the run just as it got properly dark. After about a mile going along the road towards the Fort William the rain started. By the time we started the ascent, the rain was torrential. The climb was reasonable, Mike didn't fancy the straight up route from Red Burn, so we went up the zig-zags. Conditions get 8.5 out of 10 for horrible. If it had been a couple of degrees colder finishing it would have been a close run thing. As it was when we rounded the summit there was a team close on our heels. Strangely, the weather was just as horrendous at the summit as it was on the ascent, hard to believe, isn't it? So no photos. We descended by the zig-zags and Mike did brilliantly with his glasses getting blasted with high velocity rain. The team behind us had support both on the hill and at the foot of the hill (either army or navy). Their person in a transit then followed us down the road stopping just behind us twice - the only explanation we could think of was that he was timing how far in front we were and telling the team behind us. At the Claggan sports ground I ran back to the van and asked him what he was up to, "I'm not trying to stop you, I'm with a team behind you." Sure enough on the main road he appears again, this time with runners. Mike was tiring by this stage and the van drove past, as it did so I ran in front of it and stopped it, mentioning that I thought the chappy was pacing the other two. Perhaps my actual choice of vocabulary was slightly more esoteric. And the same sorts of words were murmured to the two runners. Well, possibly it was slightly louder than a murmur and lights may have gone on in residences up to two miles away, but you get the idea.

Anyway, we ended up 5th overall and back on Dreamcatcher Derek treated us to a couple of bottles of Bollinger. I must say that it was a great event, made great by the team who were all superb company. For details of times etc. there is the website: www.threepeaksyachtrace.co.uk