CDMYC member in extreme sports event
Posted By admin on June 15, 2009
I know, you’re all thinking this is going to be another scurrilous post but no, this one’s serious. Starting this weekend is an event billed by the Daily Telegraph two months ago as one of the top 10 extreme sports events in the UK, this event takes in over 389 nautical miles of yacht racing, 18 miles of cycling, 72 miles of running (3 marathons) and 14,000 feet of ascent (2.5 miles) and is The 3 Peaks Yacht Race, http://www.threepeaksyachtrace.co.uk
For the first time ever a team from the Island’s taking part, aptly called “Team IOM” and number 25 in the entry list. The requirement is a 5 person team primarily split 3 sailer’s and 2 runners, however multi tasking on the sailing front may be neccessary depending on wind strength! The sailing contingent is made up of Keith Lord, who’s also supplying the boat, a 35 foot A boat, Acrewed Interest, which is without doubt one of the more serious 35′ racing machines about in the Irish Sea having last year won Bangor Week and along with Russ and June Collister, who have been Island Dinghy Champions for what seems like the last 500 years make a formitable sailing team. On the running front the guys with the miles to grind and possibly a bit of sailing to do are Richard Sille and Tom Cringle, again both serious fell runners regularly competing in the UK and achieving top 20 positions in fields of 400+ runners and veterans of the IOM Mountain Marathon and the Everest Marathon. On a positive note Rich had his first sail 4 weeks ago with me and Tom in the Stratos, plenty of training!
Start time for the event is 18:00 this coming Saturday with a first short yacht leg from Barmouth to Caernarfon, then it’s off with the runners to the top of Snowden (3560ft) and back in around 4.5hrs. Once back on board it’s the technically demanding sail through the Menai Straits, hopefully getting all the tide gates right and not being stuck, however this section is notorious for the crews having to row and the boat has been fitted with specially designed rowlocks and oars, once through it’s then the long offshore leg to Whitehaven and then kick the runners off to cycle 18 miles before running up and down Scafell Pike (3210ft) and cycling back to the boat for the last leg to Fort William. Still a reasonably demanding long sailing leg up through the islands and then it’s the final mad dash up and down Ben Nevis. (4406ft) Potentially this could be done on day 5 or 6 of the race and will really test the runners ability to recover from the previous 2 marathons with just this one marathon and a little bit of a climb left to do!
All the boats and runners are carrying GPS transmitters and the organisers are planning a real time feed on the 3 peaks web site so actual poitions of boats and runners can be tracked.
http://www.threepeaksyachtrace.co.uk
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