The Three Peaks Yacht Race
Super Wednesday
Rob Howard / 22.06.2005
Vlad the Impaler finished, out on their own, in the morning, and by the time they came down the cloud has just about lifted off Ben Nevis, giving later runners ideal conditions. Some light rain and high cloud did return to hamper runners who set off late in the day, but this far North, just after the longest day, the hours of darkness will be short.
For the yachts on their way in there were still some frustrating periods of calm, but far fewer as the southerly winds filled in and pushed them to Corpach. Sanderling, flying their own design sail (a cross between a spinnaker and cruising chute they described it as) were delighted to arrive in second place, but a little alarmed to find Abbeydale Moonshine closer than they thought, and with the faster runners on board.
They pulled into Corpach just 2 hours behind Sanderling and Phil Eaves and Matt Ford set off up Ben Nevis in pursuit of Stewart Robertson and Roland Prentice. It was an almost impossible task, but they gave it go, and passed the Sanderling runners coming down on the steep zig-zag path leading to the summit plateau. “It was one hell of a shock,� said Robertson, “as they had gained almost an hour on us!� But that shock gave the Sanderling runners extra energy on the descent and they completed the run in a time of 5 hours and 3 minutes, about an hour quicker than they expected.
Eaves and Ford knew they couldn’t claim second place for their team, but set themselves the target of completing the run in 4 hours. They raced into the finish … and clocked 4 hours and 11 seconds … but with seconds not being logged their time will stand as 4 hours. It puts them in with a strong chance of winning the King of the Mountains Trophy for the best aggregate time over all 3 peaks, though there are some strong challengers still to come in, including the runners off Wise Guys.
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