EADS Innovation Works Win Again - with Team Runfurther Runners Martin Beale and Martin IndgePowerBar Three Peaks Yacht 2010 – Press Release June 24th
For the second year running the PowerBar Three Peaks Yacht Race was affected by light winds, hampering the progress of the 23 entries up the west coast from Barmouth to Fort William and forcing them into extended periods of rowing. However, the race was no less competitive with the leading 4 yachts arriving at the finish within 30 minutes of each other and the final positions being decided by the run on Ben Nevis.
The race, now in its 33rd year, was established in honour of sailor/mountaineer Major H.W Tilman and is for teams of five (3 crew and 2 runners) and requires teams to sail 389 miles up the West Coast, stopping off at Caernarfon, Whitehaven and finally Fort William, from where the runners race up and down the highest peaks in Wales, England and Scotland. (Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis.) The total running distance is 72 miles with 14,000 feet of climbing and an additional 26 miles of cycling on the stage in the Lake District.
Entries this year ranged from a 25 foot Hunter Delta to a Bavaria 46 foot cruiser as they race is open to most ocean going yachts, racing on equal terms with no handicap. The majority are skippered by their owners and sailed by groups of friends, and the race has no prize money. This year the race (which has been copied around the world) had two international entries, one from Israel and another from Tasmania. Team Whistler were the winners of this year’s Tasmanian 3 Peaks Yacht Race and travelled across the world to the UK, aiming to compete a unique double.
Team Whistler lead off the start and they were the first to arrive in Caernarfon and complete the 24 mile run over Mount Snowdon before safely negotiating the dangerous passage of the Menai Strait. This narrow rocky channel is difficult to pass through and several yachts ran aground on rocks and sand banks, with White Clouds being forced to withdraw and the Israeli entry having to use their engine, resulting in disqualification.
After a slow passage to Whitehaven the longest mountain stage took the runners by bike to Ennerdale, and from there over Black Sail pass to Wasdale, from where they climbed Scafell Pike. Quickest on this stage were the runners from defending champions EADS Innovation Works, Martin Beale and Martin Indge, who took 7 hours 09 minutes. This run enabled their yacht, the 21 year old X99 owned by skipper Geoff West, to get out of Whitehaven a tide ahead of all of the competition.
They were chased by the rest of the fleet up the west coast to Fort William, passing around the Mull of Galloway and the Mull of Kintyre, and through the Inner Hebridean Isles. EADS Innovation Works were competing against bigger and faster yachts, but in the light winds and calms they had the advantage of a lighter boat and rowed their way to victory. A unique feature of the race is that yachts are rowed in periods of calm and EADS Innovation had Piers Cobham on board, a former Cambridge and UK rower. “I think we must have rowed 24 hours out of the last 36,” he said, “and that is what kept us ahead.” They arrived at the basin at the end of the Caledonian Canal at 13.42, just 8 minutes ahead of the Australians on Team Whistler (Reflex 38), who were quickly followed by Topsham Sea Fever (Arona 40) and The Dockers (Red Admiral 36).
The EADS runners took just 3 hours 15 minutes to get up and down Ben Nevis in foul weather and were first across the line to secure another win for their team, an impressive achievement in a 21 year old yacht. Their total race time was 96 hours 37 minutes, finishing 25 minutes ahead of The Dockers, whose runners gained two places on the final mountain run to secure second place. Team Whistler were 3rd and Topsham Sea Fever finished 4th and also won the prestigious Tilman Trophy for all round performance by putting 4 of their 5 team members on a summit.
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