The 44th Three Peaks Yacht Race

Youth and Experience at the Start of the 44th Three Peaks Yacht Race

Rob Howard / 09.07.2022

It was a busy Saturday in Barmouth for the start of the 44th Three Peaks Yacht Race.  The sun shone and the beaches were busy, the Barmouth 10k race was taking place, the racing yachts were lined up in the harbour at the mouth of the Mawddach Estuary and the Merioneth Yacht Club was bustling.  

Briefings for the teams, support crews and Challenge crews took place through the afternoon, and the runners all had their gear checked in the nearby boat shed. 

There were still competitors arriving too, and the last to arrive were the two school teams, whose minibuses pulled up outside the yacht club just after 1pm.  

It’s the first time in the long history of the race that school teams have taken part and they had little time to register in the race office, get organised and get onto their boats.

These, and their skippers, were waiting in the harbour, and for the Shrewsbury team it was the first time the students had met the sailors or seen the boat, and the start would be the first experience of sailing for some of them. 

Shrewsbury School are on the biggest boat in the race, the Swan 45 called Gertha 2, skippered by Simon Ridley.  Sedbergh have less room on the Jaenneau Sunfast 3600 with owner Ashley Field, and both schools have 6 pupils taking part, so the boats will be full.

Which pupils will go up which mountain isn’t known yet, but as Challenge teams, they can send up larger than usual groups, and some teachers and helpers will join them just for the mountain stages of the race.  As Simon Ridley said, “We have half a plan and I think the team can decide what to do in the circumstances at the time as we go along.”

Sam Griffiths leading the Shrewsbury team is hoping the option to use the engine in the Challenge, will help the team keep up to with the race, by motoring through tidal gates or calm conditions. 

“We race the Scottish Islands Peaks Race every year,” he said, “but that is only 48 hours and it will be more difficult for the pupils just being on the boat in 3 and 4th days here.”  In the small cabins, possibly seasick and enduring long hours with little to do, they may find this adventure is one which requires patience and perserverance as well as action and adventure.

While the young racers were setting off for a new experience, many older racers were returning to a race they know very, very well. 

Geoff West, skipper of the Osprey Meadows team, won the race in his boat Tacitx in 1999, before any of the students were born.  Many others are returning to race for the 3rd or 4th time, with Team Baloo, and Wild Spirit among the race ‘regulars’.

It was another returning team, Roaring Forties, on the J111 skippered by Cris Miles, who were first across the start line, timing their run to perfection.  They have finished second before and are a competitive team, in the fastest boat, and out to win, but the light winds forecast may not favour them when the handicap positions are finalised.

That said, the winds were not as light as forecast for the start, and on choppy seas, and with a 10-15knot NW wind the teams made a good start.  That is, all but Team Olympioz, who had some problems and crossed the line 15 minutes after everyone else.

They are still at the back of the fleet as the boats approach Bardsey Head, and both school teams are doing well, but at this early stage there is little between the boats, and there is still a long way to go for the old hands and the new young adventures.