9th South West 3 Peaks Yacht Race set for 7th-9th June 2024

by Tim Whitaker 19 Feb 19:21 GMT 7-9 June 2024

The dates have been set for the seventh South West 3 Peaks Yacht Race!

• Sail 125 miles
• The 9th South West 3 Peaks Yacht Race Cycle 140 miles
• The 9th South West 3 Peaks Yacht Race Run 29 miles

The Race starts in St Mawes, goes to Newlyn, Fowey and finishes in Plymouth. Crews consist of 6 people, 2 competitors from each boat must complete each land leg. The land legs consist of a circular run in St Mawes, a cycle and run to Lands End, a cycle and run to Brown Willy (Cornwall's highest point) and a cycle and run to Yes Tor (Devon's highest point).

Starts at 09:30 Friday, expected finish late Saturday/early Sunday.

For more details see www.nearwaterevents.co.uk/3-peaks-yacht-race

A race report from the race director of the 2019 race

There were a record 8 entries in total.

The event started on the Friday morning with a run from St Mawes to St Just and back (2 team members). They then had to jump into a dinghy and row out to the waiting boats, Le Mans style, and off they all went to Newlyn (after stowing dinghy on board).

There was a 10/15 knot NW breeze, but dropping, the fleet got around the Lizard before the tide turned against but with a light wind Mount's Bay it was 17:00 before the first yacht "Luna of Plymouth" arrived in Newlyn.

45 minutes Hoofing Run Ashore and Mischief arrived pretty much together. The land leg involved a cycle ride to Porthcurno then a 13 mile run to Land's End and back. Meanwhile those remaining on the boats had a quick meal and prepared for the evening sail to Fowey.

Team Luna were first back to Newlyn and jumped on board so that they could set off across Mounts bay and round the Lizard and on to Fowey. The other 4 teams all duly took off from Newlyn. The wind now northerly was getting progressively ligher.

None of the yachts reached the Lizard before the tide turned against and with the wind going very light spent a frustrating night struggling to round the headland, many yachts going round in circles. Team Hoofing Run Ashore had a particularly tough night with their skipper losing his phone overboard while trying to retrieve their anchor, which they had dropped off the Lizard to avoid going backwards, they eventually had to cut their anchor line.

First in to Polruan were Luna at 09:47 with the others between 1 and 3 hours behind. The weather which had been baking hot in St Mawes the previous day was deteriorating rapidly, it was now raining and the wind was picking up from the North. The athletes from Luna returned cold and tired from their trip up Brown Willy and departed at 15:09. Shortly afterwards I got a report from their skipper that they were sailing along the coast to Plymouth in 55 knots of wind. At this point I decided to hold the other teams overnight in Fowey until the wind had decreased somewhat.

The race resumed at 07:00 the following morning with everyone having had a chance to get some sleep and a decent meal. The northerly wind continued but now at more reasonable 20 to 25 knots. The teams had an exciting sail all in close proximity to Plymouth.

Due to the now late running of the race the last land leg of the race was shortened to just include the cycling leg to Meldon Resevoir and back and the sailing leg out to Eddystone from Plymouth was also dropped.

The end result was a win for Hoofing Run Ashore in their S&S 30, with Mischief (a Sunfast 32) second and Luna Of Plymouth (a Sweden 40) a very close third.