20th Hydro Tasmania Three Peaks draws big fleet

by Peter Campbell on 21 Mar 2008 The second largest fleet in the 20 year history of the Hydro Tasmania Three Peaks Race will contest Australia's premier short-handed offshore sailing and endurance running event when it starts from Beauty Point on the Tamar River today

The fleet of 27 monohull and multihull yachts is the biggest since the first race in 1989 when 30 boats set sail in the rugged race around the East Coast of Tasmania, that involves each yacht's runners climbing three mountain peaks on Flinders Island, on the Freycinet Peninsula and finally up Hobart's Mount Wellington.

Yachts from Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland are competing, with runners in their crews from Australia, New Zealand and, for the first time, Israel.

The Governor of Tasmania, Mr William Cox, will fire the starting cannon from Inspection Head wharf at 2pm today to send the fleet away on three demanding days involving 335 nautical miles of sailing and 133km of endurance running, including 2646 metres of hill and mountain climbing.

The first leg is from Beauty Point to Lady Barron on Flinders, a distance of 90 nautical miles in Bass Strait, including negotiating the tricky shoals south of Flinders Island. Once ashore, the runners have a 65km cross-country and 756 metre climb to the peak of Mt Strzeleckki.

From Lady Barron, the fleet sails 245 nautical miles down the Tasmanian East Coast to Coles Bay where the runners have a 45km run and a 620m climb of Mt Freycinet. The final leg is the100 nautical mile sail to Hobart and the 33km run to the 2646m peak of Mt Wellington, then back to the finish on Hobart's dockside.

Two Tasmanians who sailed together in the inaugural Three Peaks over Easter 1989, Nick Edwards, from Sidmouth, and runner David Wright from Bridgenorth, are fronting up for their 20th race aboard Nick's yacht Haphazard.

The Three Peaks Race has always been organised and conducted by volunteers and several of those involved in the inaugural race are again playing key roles in the 20th event, including Race Director Alastair Douglas and his wife, Jenny, Safety Inspector Bob Silberberg, and Flinders Island volunteer Gerard Dilger, whose wife Robyn is Chief Marshall at Lady Barron, having been a volunteer for 19 years.

The marathon runners from Israel, Alon Peled and Ron Shilon, have competed in the British and Scottish Three Peaks and will be sailing aboard the Victorian yacht Aphrodite in their first Tasmanian Three Peaks Race.

The team is competing for the Tilman Trophy, donated by the British Three Peaks Race Committee, is named after the famed adventurer, mountaineer, explorer and author Major Harold William (Bill) Tillman who liked to sail somewhere remote and climb icy mountains.

It is designed as an incentive for smaller yachts, older crews and to generally reward teams, which are less competitive but are prepared to do their best. Extra points can be achieved by more than two of the crew completing the final run up Mt Wellington.

Main focus of the Hydro Tasmania Three Peaks Race, however, will be on the Main Racing Division, which has attracted some fast ocean racing mono and multihull yachts. A feature of the Three Peaks since its inception has been allowing yachts to be re-named for their sponsors and many yachts will be racing as such in 2008.

Early favourite is the Chamberlain 9 catamaran racing this year as Shearwater Pure Sprouts, skippered by Phillip Marshall from Devonport. This cat was runner-up in 2002 and winners in 2005, 2006 and 2007, with skipper Marshall a veteran of 14 Three Peaks.

Past Three Peaks winner Terry Travers is back with his Chamberlin 11.4m catamaran Westbury/Mersey Pharmacy with an experienced crew that includes the designer, Robin Chamberlin.

Another interesting entrant is the 14m catamaran BWR Multihulls from Queensland, winner of the 2007 Solo TransTasman Race from New Plymouth to Mooloolaba. Skipper is Bruce Arms from Pacific Paradise.

Wellknown Hobart yachts competing in the Main Racing Division include David Taylor's Sydney 36 Pisces, with David Rees' Corelink Creative Intention, and Jeff Cordell's Mumm 36 Underwater Video Systems - Host Plus. This will be Cordell's 18th Three Peaks Race.

Launceston entrants include the Beneteau 40.7 Bartercard, skippered by Richard Fisher, Commodore of the Tamar Yacht Club, and John Joyce's Lyons 47 Launceston Apartments.com and Julian Robinson's Apollonius.

Largest boat ever to compete in the Three Peaks is Magic Miles, a Dynamique 62 skippered by Queensland yachtsman Drew Murray. A big cruising boat normally used for charter work, the boat has a crew of experienced Tasmanian sailors.

For the first time with the Hydro Three Peaks Race, each yacht has been fitted with a GPS tracker that uses a datacall unit transmitting through the Telstra Next G Network rather than using satellite communication.

An innovative Tasmanian company has developed its digital expertise in agricultural planning and weather information especially for the Tasmanian Three Peaks.

Twelve of the yachts will also be fitted with web cams capable of transmitting an onboard photograph every 15 minutes in addition to its position on the course.

www.threepeaks.org.au