The Three Peaks Yacht Race
Morning in Menai
Rob Howard / 18.06.2006
The last 4 yachts to pull up alongside the pier were all close together, coming in just 37 minutes apart. Amicus arrived 03.06, and will be delighted they are on course to lose the ‘Last Inn Cup’, having another 3 teams behind them after the first stage.
With the wind rising they were followed by Whisky Galore of Little Todday, Seahorse V, and bringing up the rear were Multinet, last to arrive at 03.43. All the fleet arrived safely, and all came in during the hours of darkness.
Twenty minutes later the first runners were jogging back in, as Rob Smith and Greg Marsh returned from their 24 mile Snowdon run, arriving at 04.01, and taking the lead in the race. Smith is a member of the Accelerate Adventure Racing Team and though Marsh may be the fittest skipper in the race he had a tough time. The pair had to push the pace, knowing the tide would be more strongly against them every minute longer they were on the run, and they were fast, taking just 4 hours 33 minutes, and passing the two runners from Kidscape Challenge.
It was a bold move by Marsh, who still has to skipper the rest of the race, but it shows the faith he has in his crew. He ran Ben Nevis last year and the run/ride at Scafell Pike is better done by his specialist athletes, so he took his chance for a night time crossing of Snowdon and took his team into first place. Despite his fatigue he was still on the helm as they lead the way out through the difficult rocks of ‘the Swellies’ between the Menai bridges.
Close behind them were Andy Arbour and Chris Daniels of Leopard who set the fastest time of 4 hours 15 minutes, putting their team into second place and they must now be favourites for the King of the Mountains title. Third back were Abbeydale Moonshine, with Tim Fairbrother and Colin Taylor taking 4 hours 25 minutes and then Blondie. Kidscape Challenge slipped back from first to 5th with David Sales and Kevin Parke taking 5 hours 34 minutes.
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