Challenge Stu

Let's be clear from the start - the Three Peaks Yacht Race is a bizarre event. Many aspects of it just would be very different if you designed the race today, but then you probably wouldn't do that anyway. It's a wonderful event, run by a group of really dedicated and hardworking organisers, but it's a serious undertaking: It's a long way, there isn't much sleep to be had, and if you're not standing on the walls and hanging on while using the toilet, you're going slowly. And if you're going slowly, you're about to be rowing. That all makes it sound like it's not fun, but that isn't true: It's amazing fun! This year I was racing with skipper Paul Jackson (father in law), navigator Nick Ridgeway, sailor Craig Williamson, and running with Dave Robinette. This was the team assembled for the 2020 race which finally took place last week. We were racing as many times before on Wild Spirit. WS is a very solid and pretty heavy boat and really ...

For once, I took the nice camera with me, so I've decided that my 3 Peaks blog will involve minimal words and lots of photos. I have raced this race a couple of times before, but this time was part of a new team. Wild Spirit is our skipper Paul Jackson's boat, but due to logistics we were racing on a chartered boat from Ireland (Sherkin II), under the team name Wild Spirit. Sailing with Paul we had Tom and John, and Wil Spain and I would be the runners. Thanks to Wil for stepping in at the last minute when Hugh Aggleton's injury became too serious to race. The final member of our team was Judith, who would be our shore support crew and would bring the bikes round to Whitehaven. All the hard work without the fun bits - thank you Judith! Saturday lunchtime - the adoring crowds gather... ...the Wild Spirit crew (l-r John, me, Wil, Tom, Paul) is ready... ...by 1 o'clock everyone else is ready and the race is about to start... So, at 2pm on (a very sun...