The Three Peaks Yacht Race 2016
Hooked on this Crazy Nautical Adventure
Rob Howard / 15.06.2016
As dusk fell two more teams came down off Ben Nevis to complete the race. The runners from Team SUOTC came racing in together and the team had opened their Wee Laddie whiskey for a drink on the finish line, but Nadir Wahab just wanted water when he first crossed the line. He was gasping for breath a little while his running partner Beth Albon was still jumping around with excitement at finishing the race. The pair had run Snowdon and Ben Nevis and Albon said conditions were, “pretty good” adding “we expected to get rained on more”
The skipper George Jorgensen said, “It’s all gone as well as we could have hoped and we couldn’t have hoped to finish any higher than this. We think we’ve won the Tilman Trophy and I’m sure we’ve won the cup for the youngest team. I think we are half the age of any other team.” The total age for the team is just 104 and their ages range from 19 to 22.
“I came to race 2 years ago,” Jorgensen said, “and came back this time better prepared, and I’m sure we will come again some time. I think we have to as Beth is desperate to race again already!”
While the SUOTC team were celebrating the runners from Sail4Cancer came across the line, so there was quite a crowd gathered to cheer in Traharn Chidley and Rob Barnes. Dee Caffari and Libby Greenhalgh held out a Sail4Cancer flag as a finishing tape for them to run through and afterwards Caffari was full of enthusiasm for the race and all the new experiences it’s given her and the team.
“This race had everything!” she said, “We had too little wind and too much wind, the team rowed, ran and cycled, there was down wind and upwind sailing and we navigated into some places where I was glad it was daylight! I wouldn’t want to be in the Menai Strait in the dark! On this last leg we made 71 tacks ... we counted them! There is no other race like it.
“At the start everyone had their oars out so I thought we’d better do the same and from then we were rookies learning as we went. Everyone told me you do well by making the least mistakes and we made one early off Bardsey Head and put that down to inexperience as we watched everyone go close inshore and pass us!
“Now we are thinking of everything we could do better and before we even got to the finish line we were having the conversation about coming back for another go. I can see why this race is addictive. It’s a crazy, nautical adventure, and it’s about much, much more than just sailing.”
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