South West 3 Peaks Race 2016

South West 3 Peaks Race 2016 © Simon Lovesey

South West 3 Peaks Race 2016 © Simon Lovesey

Last weekend, teams gathered in St. Mawes, Cornwall for the third South West 3 Peaks Adventure Race. Ahead of them were three hard days that would see the teams covering around 300 miles across some fantastic picturesque landscapes through Cornwall and Devon. Each team, consisting of six members, would have to run, sail and cycle over eight legs, reaching the region's highest Three Peaks and taking in many iconic locations.

Event organiser, Tim Whitaker, promptly started the 2016 South West 3 Peaks Race at midday on St. Mawes harbour side. The first leg saw a 5 mile run along the waterfront past St. Mawes Castle, then to St. Just Church and back. Returning to St. Mawes, the Royal Marines from Lympstone, Team Hoofing Ashore, were a good three minutes ahead of the pack, smashing the leg record in 34 minutes. With a 37 mile sail down to Newlyn, Team Hoofing Ashore's yacht, the little S&S 30 ½ tonner, dating back to the 70s and the oldest and slowest boat in the fleet, was able to set sail from St. Mawes harbour with a significant advantage.

With a reach across Falmouth Bay towards the Lizard, the fleet enjoyed some fast spinnaker reaching in a building NW breeze. The SailRacer GPS trackers recorded ever increasing speeds, with Assegai (Corsair F28R Tri), the fastest boat in the fleet, seeing the best top speed at over 15 kts and a twenty minute lead at the Lizard.

With a stiff beat into Newlyn, passing St. Michael's Mount, the fleet compacted and the X362 Sport, Musk Ox, took ten minutes off Assegai's time as the Tri slowed upwind.

The next land leg saw a steep 400 foot climb out of Newlyn and 9 mile cycle ride to Porthcurno, just up the road from the famous open air Minack Theatre and home to the 19th Century Submarine Cable Station. This remote spot in South West Cornwall was the hub of England's communications with the rest of the world in previous centuries. From Porthcurno a six mile run to Land's End (the first peak), with competitors taking a selfie by the famous sign pointing to New York, over three thousand miles away.

After a last place for the first land leg, Team Usual Suspects, pulled out all the stops to win land leg 2 by 9 minutes from the Marines in Team Hoofing Ashore.

Back at Newlyn Harbour, Team Musk Ox who were third on land leg 2, were first to leave in their X362 Sport for a 56 mile overnight sail to Fowey Harbour. On corrected time Musk Ox took the leg, from the Usual Suspects in their Beneteau First 36.7 and the BBQ Boys (Beneteau First 31.7) in third.

At Fowey Harbour, the land crews were dropped off at Polruan for a 22 mile cycle ride, climbing 1,000 feet to the historic Jamaica Inn, high on Bodmin Moor. From here, a 4 mile run to the top of Brown Willy (the 2nd Peak and Cornwall's highest point). Land leg 3 saw Team Gotta Good Feeling take the win, from Hoofing Run Ashore and Team Musk Ox again proving very consistent in third place.

South West 3 Peaks Race 2016 - photo © Simon Lovesey

With the cyclists returning to Fowey Harbour, the teams enjoyed a 25 mile sail into Plymouth. Musk Ox was first into Queen Anne's Battery (QAB) mid afternoon, nearly two hours ahead of the next boats. But being so far ahead came with significant costs, as the rest of fleet enjoyed a building sea breeze and the SailRacer GPS trackers regularly showed double figure speeds. On corrected time, Musk Ox dropped their faultless record to finish last. The slowest boat, Hoofing Ashore (S&S 30) benefited the most from the late sea breeze to win the leg from Usual Suspects (Beneteau First 36.7) and Gotta Good Feeling (Feeling 1090) in third.

The Plymouth stopover saw a change in format from previous years with the land crew heading North to Yes Tor, the Third Peak high on Dartmoor, and the sailors heading 15 miles South to round Eddystone Lighthouse. This produced an interesting view on the SailRacer live coverage, with the GPS trackers showing the land and sea crews converging on Plymouth from opposite directions.

The Hoofing Run Ashore Marines, set their second record to win the land leg from The Usual Suspects and Musk Ox in third. For the sailors, Musk Ox got back into winning ways to take their third bullet, with the Usual Suspects in second, and Assegai (Corsair F28R) completing the podium.

Once all the times across the eight legs had been calculated, team Musk Ox were declared winners, successfully defending their 2015 title. With record times across two of the land legs, Team Hoofing Run Ashore, (Marines from Lympstone) pushed hard, finishing just 27 minutes behind the leaders.

Overall Results:

SailRacer covered the 2016 SW 3 Peaks Adventure Race with live GPS tracking, commentary and photography - watch the SailRacer video.

3Peaks.SailRacer.org

Event organiser, Tim Whitaker commented "It was great to have SailRacer on board, with their unique method of live coverage, we have seen several thousand online spectators watching the race. For the teams and supporters, it was fantastic to see the real time positions from the SailRacer GPS trackers, great for finding all the teams and meeting them at the various stopover points."