3 Peaks Yacht Race - Full Report

Published 09:05 on 11 Jul 2014

Three Peaks Yacht Race report.

 All four Sigma’s finished – 2 38’s Mistral of St Helier and Rho and two 33’s.

 The race started at Barmouth by all boats rowing over the line for 2 hours then a light wind fiddly leg to Caernarfon.

Rho beat Mistral into Caernarfon getting the most from their 150% Genoa but Mistral used a small Asymmetric spinnaker to great effect later on in the race. Rho were 5^thinto Caernarfon and Mistral 7^th.

Mistral’s specialist runners overtook several boats on Snowdon to bring them back into contention.

 The Swellies proved tough with full flood against Rho, Mistral and Moby J, a J92, avoiding rocks in very light fluky winds. Mistral took the back route to go ahead then came to a stop for 30 minutes by the “Platters” when a fresh wind brought Rho and Moby J up to and straight past Mistral. Rho came out of the Menai Straits in 2^ndposition overall with Mistral 5^th. The battle continued with Mistral using her Symmetrical and Asymmetrical and local knowledge to run a better course and beat both into Whitehaven. Again Mistral’s fast runner prevailed and Mistral departed Whitehaven in 2^nd overall just 2 miles behind the lead boat – a Reflex 38.

 The leg to Fort William was extremely tactical with the fast lead boats, a J111 and Reflex 38, catching the tides at Mull of Galloway and Mull of Kintyre. Again Mistral used local knowledge well to round both well ahead of the other Sigma’s although was trumped by the J92’ masterly rounding of Galloway to gain a 10 mile lead which could not be caught.

 Mistral’s runners dominated Ben Nevis and took the overall “King of the Mountains” trophy and 4^th overall and the “1^st Sigma” and “1^st Welsh yacht” trophies with Rho finishing 3^rd in the “Tilman Trophy Race”.

 In a race dominated by light to medium downwind sailing we often found angle/wind speeds between Genoa and symmetrical spinnaker so Mistral’s Asymmetrical spinnaker proved a race saver against the bowsprit racing boats such as the J111 and J92’s. The sail came from a 34 footer and was about 1 metre small all round. Next time we’ll carry a full size one. Without a bowsprit we were still disadvantaged in the tight constraints of Loch Linnie in the night finding it difficult to gybe the Asy round the forestay reliably but on the longer stretches with a sea running it gave us power with ease of handling by the 3 sailing crew.

 Keith Mander – Mistral of St Helier.

Last updated 12:52 on 29 January 2015