The Race is Underway

Rob Howard / 15.06.2013

The wind has moderated a bit by the time the gun sounded at 13.00 to announce it was time for the Barmouth Lifeboat to lead the procession out of the harbour, and fortunately the heavy rain showers which had scattered all the spectators to the nearest shelter had passed too. So they came back out onto the breakwater to wave to the 15 starting boats as they made their way out to the start line, seemingly not having too much trouble getting off their moorings.

Moby J was keen to get going, sneaking ahead of the lifeboat and the committee boat, and after crossing the choppy waters of the harbour bar the crews assembled around the start line, which is marked by buoys a mile out to sea.  Watched over by the lifeboat and some other local boats the start was clean and close, with 3 boats leading the way, including Moby J.

The others followed soon after on the first leg, which rounds the difficult waters of Bardsey Head at the end of the Llyn Peninsula to take teams to their first stop at Caernarfon.  It is a sail of 62 sea miles and the race record is 6 hours 52 minutes for a monohull.  (In the days when multi-hulls were allowed it was an incredible 4 hours 50 minutes!). 

It is unlikely to be quite so fast this year, but the leading teams will be hoping to set their runners off on the 26 mile run up and down Snowdon before midnight. (If they do it will mean the leading runners will complete almost all the first run in the dark.)

You can follow the progress of the yachts with the race trackers at http://www.threepeaksyachtrace.co.uk/followrace.php and send messages of support to the teams via the SleepMonsters leaderboard; http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?race_id=10465&page_action=lea

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