The Three Peaks Yacht Race 2016
What a Race!
Rob Howard / 17.06.2016
If you want variety and adventure it’s hard to beat the 3 Peaks Yacht Race! The weather this year was exceptional, starting with almost no wind and changing to head winds up to gale force for the last stage of the race.
With one of the most competitive entries for some time, and the introduction of the IRC handicap on sailing times there was intense competition from start to finish. The first leg prize was won by Moby J by just one minute and three different teams won the three legs of the race. The final results were still in question until the leading runners came down from Ben Nevis to the finish.
Race winners were Pure Attitude who were consistently near the front throughout, whatever the weather, and they are the first ever race winners on handicap. They were just beaten to line honours by Aparito Digital Health, the first all-female team to finish the race since 2009, and the Tilman Trophy winners were the Southampton University OTC team, one of the youngest teams ever to complete the race.
The winners of the King of the Mountains title were Alex Pilkington and Pavel Paloncy from Wight Rose. This was another close contest with the runners from Moby J, Muir Morton and Nicholas Barber, who were fastest on Ben Nevis.
There are prizes to be won throughout the race and this includes the later boats to finish as well. Sea Camels, who came in 8th place overall, and were the winners of two trophies. They were the second Tilman team and won the prize for the Best Dressed Boat, a silver Quaich (a traditional Scottish drinking bowl) presented by Scottish Canals – plus of course a bottle of Wee Laddie from Bruichladdich to go in it!
Many of their flags were drawn by children from the Acorn Children’s Hospice and they’ve raised over £7,000 for them so far, so they could be in for another trophy as there is one for the best fundraiser too.
The last boat to finish wins the “The Last Inn Cup” and this went to ‘If Not Now, Then When’ whose runners went up Ben Nevis overnight and returned at 07.30 on Friday to complete the race – something which has been a lifetime ambition for Rob McCaffrey, who organised the team.
Most of the yachts have now left Corpach but the competitors will take with them memories of a remarkable race, and will hopefully come back again next year when it’s the 40th race! Not many races last 40 years and it would be great to see as many past competitors as possible return – maybe there will be 40 boats on the start line ... ?
Entries are now open on the website at www.threepeaksyachtrace.co.uk
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