Barmouth to Fort William 3 Peaks Yacht Race

Barmouth to Fort William 3 Peaks Yacht Race 2014 © Rob Howard

Barmouth to Fort William 3 Peaks Yacht Race 2014 © Rob Howard

Barmouth to Fort William 3 Peaks Yacht Race 2014 © Rob Howard

Only the 3 Peaks Yacht Race could produce a start with a dozen very different yachts rowing across a start line off Barmouth in flat calm, and finish with one of the fastest races for many years and the leading boats arriving 3 minutes apart after an epic journey up the west coast.

Of course in this race when the sailing finishes the race does not, the two leading yachts, the J111 'British Army' and the Reflex 38 'Wight Rose', had to put their runners ashore for the last of the 3 peaks – Ben Nevis. The race wasn't decided until they'd been to the top of Britain's highest peak and returned to the finish at the Corpach Lock Basin.

The first back were Alex Pilkington and Stuart Walker from 'Wight Rose', two experienced mountain runners and adventure racers, and they ran across the line for their team to finish the race in 77 hours 52 minutes. For their crew it was another 3 peaks medal to add to their collections. Skipper and boat owner Geoff West has now won the race 6 times, Gary Clayton 3 times and John Donelly twice!

It was this combination of experience and fast runners which won the race and kept the 'British Army' team in second place. They finished in 79 hours 44 minutes, and were second despite being easily the fastest on the water and on each of the sailing legs. The new J111 skippered by Major Will Naylor was first into Caernarfon, Whitehaven and Corpach, but their runners were passed on every mountain stage.

'Wight Rose' had taken a risky route through the Swellies in the Menai Strait when forcing a passage against the tide, and left Whitehaven with a few hours lead for the 200 mile sail up to Corpach. In downwind conditions they stayed ahead around Galloway and Kintyre and through the Sound of Jura, before being passed, but stayed with the faster boat into Loch Linnhe and the finish.

'British Army' were the winners of the prestigious Tilman Trophy, for all round team performance, as they put all 5 of their team onto a summit, with the skipper making the final climb on Ben Nevis. They will win all the sailing trophies and the cup for the first services team, so were not too disappointed to miss out on the overall victory. "It's been champagne sailing all the way," said Matt Sargent, "we've had the spinnaker up almost all the way and this is a fast boat we've enjoyed sailing."

The army just missed out on the IRC Handicap trophy, which was won by the self built Mount Gay 30, Denebola from Belgium. The skipper Alain Poncelet was almost lost for words to describe the experience of the race, and just settled for, "Magnificent!" His team managed to beat of the other international entry, the Swiss team 'Mach5", who had 4 new sailors on board – all of them mountain guides and paragliders. The race attracts and real mix of adventurers and also had entries from the Vagabond Mountaineering Club, and one team who never met each other before!

The fastest runners overall were on the Sigma 38OOD, 'Mistral'. Chris Jones and Hugh Aggleton managed to complete all 3 peaks in a total time of 14 hours 11 minutes. The race attracted a big audience to its live website, with tracking of all the boats and runners, and continuous social media updates.

The 38th Three Peaks Yacht Race starts next year on June 27th at 18:00.

www.threepeaksyachtrace.co.uk