The 44th Three Peaks Yacht Race

Improved Conditions for the Final Teams Through Whitehaven and Scafell Pike

Cory Wallace / 12.07.2022

Tuesday brought a change in weather and in fortune for the Three Peaks Yacht Race teams, while much of England had another day of heatwave temperatures the Western Lake District this morning had cooler weather, a few showers, cloudy condition ...  and some wind! 

This brought the final 3 boats into Whitehaven, who were delighted to have had a good night of sailing, and in time for the crews to get a late breakfast and for the runners to have a full day for the Scafell Pike stage.  Baloo missed getting into the lock on the early morning tide and had to wait to get in, setting their runners off at 07.47.   Skipper Pete Chatfield said, “We missed getting in by about 40 minutes.”

There seems to have been more waiting for the sea lock this year than there usually is, but at least the two following boats, Olympioz and Seas the Life were able to enter on arrival.  Baloo are experienced 3 peaks racers, all taking part in their 4th or 5th races, so they know what to expect.  Chatfield said, “We rowed a lot, including through the Menai Strait, which was interesting, but then when we got through we really didn’t go anywhere.  We had to anchor against the tide for an hour and then there was no wind at all.  We did manage to go in a circle but there wasn’t any forward progress for almost 24 hours.”

Their runners had an unusual stop on Snowdon to help another injured runner (in a different race).  He’d fallen and gashed his face, and it was at this point the fact all 3 Peaks Yacht Race teams have to carry a first aid kit, came in useful.  They used the triangular bandage to clean up the blood and patched him up, then escorted him to another competitor, who took over looking after him.

This team are in the Tilman Cup, so it was two different runners (Ben Redhead and Rob Harnan) who set off for Scafell Pike.  They met their support crew at the Wasdale Head Inn, who gave them some food, and said all was going well. 

Olympioz set their runners off at 08.29, and for this stage it was the two Australian’s in the team.  (Hence the team name for the yacht Olympia.)  Tom Dillon has flown in from Australia to take part and Wes Batty has come from Norway, where he now lives.  They are both sailors who taken part in several Sydney Hobart’s and it was Tom who replied to a post on the race website noticeboard and “invited Wes to do something crazy.” 

Wes has already completed the Snowdon stage (this is another Tilman team) and he did this with Gethin Pickard, who had a tough time.  Recently recovered from Covid, and with new shoes, which left him with no toenails by the end, he managed to complete the run, but according to Wes “was in pieces”.  Their fourth runner was to have been Michael Crisp, but he’s injured his knee, so to complete the Tilman Cup it will be down to the skipper, Neil Harper, to walk up Ben Nevis.  (There is race tradition of Skippers doing this in their team’s time of need!)

The Australians had passed the Dutch runners as they climbed back up to Black Sail Pass, and they asked about Tom’s grazed leg.  “Oh, we had a bike crash, but it’s OK,” he said.  The two Australian’s we laughing about the tumble on the bike, but the Dutch pair were bemused.  “Why are you laughing about falling and hurting yourself?”  There was cultural confusion on the mountain side.

The Food for Flow runners are Ilse Vooren and Axel Van Willenbury, who is a former Dutch marine and the oldest ‘mountaineer’ (in the original spirit of the race) at 69.  He’s in walking boots and carrying trekking poles, and they were in good spirits after the climb up and down Scafell Pike, where the top is in dense cloud today.  The pair has lost some time earlier in the stage, leaving their bikes at a Youth Hostel in Ennderdale, the trouble was it was Gillerthwaite YHA, which is half way up Ennderdale, not Black Sail YHA at the head of the valley.  Luckily they did realise, and turned back to get the bikes and continued to Black Sail.

The last runners to reach the Wasdale Head Inn on the way out were Simon Bostock and Mike Coombs from Team Seas the Life , and they spent some time there with the race marshals and their own support team.  The marshals, Laura, Neale and Grace, check the runners through and are in communication with Whitehaven. (they are mountain rescue volunteers as well, with the Cockermouth Team.)  They have drinks, snacks and fruit for the runnerss, though most have support crews meeting them. In this case the runners stopped for both the race snacks and a brew before heading up the hill.  Simon said, “We are in no great hurry as we can’t leave on the tide until later tonight, so we are taking it quite easy.”

This team had suffered one of those race defining and frustrating moments entering Caernarfon. They rowed against the tide to within 300m of the buoy beyond which engine use is allowed, but could not get any further. It was another 6 hour wait then to get into Caernarfon, and then, after taking the route around Anglesey, they hit the wind hole which stopped the boats for so long.  Those few metres could have made a lot of difference!

That’s behind them now, today they need to complete a good run on Scafell Pike, and then they will be onto the third and final stage of the race. 

Most of the remaining boats will be aiming to get out of Whitehaven tonight and on their way to Scotland.  Baloo has decided to leave in the morning.

(Note.  The runners from the Sedbergh School team did set the fastest time up and down Scafell Pike from Wasdale (1 hour 57 mins) beating all the race boats, including the two international mountain runners racing on Wild Spirit, who took 2 hours 2 mins.)