Neil Buckby Motors wins Hydro Tasmania Three Peaks

by Jane Austin on 10 Apr 2007 Phillip Marshall has skippered his high performance Chamberlin 9 catamaran to another win in this year's Hydro Tasmania Three Peaks Race.

Neil Buckby Motors arrived in Hobart at 23:16 on Easter Monday with team runners, Glen Campbell and Mark Guy looking relaxed and in control as they began their ascent of Mt Wellington.

The team won overall line honours and took out the main short handed racing division with the runners arriving back at Race Control from Mt Wellington at 02:36 Easter Tuesday.

Second across the line and second in the main racing division finishing at 06:01 was former race winner Terry Travers who co-skippered the South Australian trimaran, Westbury/Mersey Pharmacy, with owner Rob Remilton.

The multihulls sailed a competitive race and at one stage were sailing within two nautical miles of each other just south of Banks Strait. But Marshall's plan to stay further inshore on the run down the coast pushed the boat further into the lead and increased the gap between the Farrier F9R trimaran and the high speed cat.

This is Marshall's third consecutive win in the race.

The third yacht in the main racing division, Plan Four, passed the Iron Pot at 02:20 and can be seen on the River. Peter Newman and his crew should arrive in Hobart by 08:00.

In the fully crewed division, Pisces and Haphazard are having a tough battle. Haphazard reported passing the Iron Pot at 03:45 while Pisces reported the same position at 04:31. With only 46 minutes between the monohulls, the trip up the River Derwent and the pace of the runners on Mt Wellington will be critical to the finishing order of these teams. Team runners will at least have the advantage of running the Mountain in the daylight.

Fully crewed entrant Team Navy Blue passed the Iron Pot at 05:55 and with winds gradually increasing on the Derwent, should arrive in Hobart well before lunch time.

Rob Grant's yacht Chance continues to sail a strong race and is on the River within sight of Race Control at 06:30.

At the 04:00 sked today, Apollonius, Creative inTension, Team Navy Gold and PRD Nationwide Tamar Valley were not heard by Race Control.

The Hydro Tasmania Three Peaks Race is a major event on the Tasmanian sporting calendar attracting large crowds each year. The race is a non-stop event beginning at Beauty Point on the Tamar River on Good Friday and finishing in Hobart. En route, each team's running pair has to scale Mt Strzelecki on Flinders Island, Mt Freycinet on the Freycinet Peninsula on Tasmania's east coast, and Mt Wellington, in Tasmania's capital city, Hobart.

The total sailing distance is 335 nautical miles and the total run length is 131kms.

Light and variable winds have challenged the competitors for most of this year's race forcing Race Director Alastair Douglas and his Race Committee to shorten the sailing leg into Lady Barron on Flinders Island. But the race has unfolded with no serious damage reported to the fleet nor any injury to the runners and sailors.

Overall, race dramas have been few. Creative inTension ran aground on a sand bar inside Long Island in the Furneaux Group on Easter Saturday but were pulled free by Team Navy Gold. PRD Nationwide Tamar Valley runners, Lloyd and Dane Febey, also had a race to remember after a wrong turn on the coastal track to Mt Strzelecki saw the father/son combination add an extra 25km to what was already a 65km leg.

2008 is the 20th anniversary of the Race.

The Race Committee reports strong interest already from a number of boats keen to commemorate the 20th race and to experience the thrill, exhilaration and the remarkable camaraderie of Australia's premier non-stop running and sailing endurance event.