64th Yachtmaster Three Rivers Race
by Holly Hancock 2 Jun 06:35 PDT
31 May - 1 June 2025
The 64th Yachtmaster Insurance Three Rivers Race began from Horning Sailing Club on Saturday 31st May, with conditions a stark contrast to the 2024 race, which had seen near record course times. This year the Race started with a gentle breeze and warm sunshine for the epic 24-hour challenge across 50 miles of the Norfolk Broads, but a defining feature of the 2025 iconic Broads event was the strong tides which created chaos for competitors and guaranteed that no-one finished before nightfall.
With 108 boats departing from Horning in smaller fleets, the light winds allowed for clean starts and attracted a large crowd to watch from the village. The tree-lined riverbank through Horning and a strong incoming tide proved frustrating for competitors, particularly for a number of the slower hire boats, some taking up to six hours just to clear Horning.
It proved to be a great year for Chris Bunn, helming Yare & Bure One Design 'Fox', crewed by Matthew Frary, who sailed to a record-breaking eighth victory in the Race, winning for the second consecutive year - making him the most successful sailor in the Three Rivers Race history, and winning the Three Rivers Trophy (for overall winner), the New Three Rivers Trophy, the Peter Cumming Tankard (for first non-HSC member), Puffin Trophy (first halfdecker on handicap), and the Howes Salver (for leading YBOD).
With knowledge of the unfavourable tides, the majority of the fleet opted to go to Hickling first, trying to make the most of the tidal conditions before reaching the Lower Bure below Acle Bridge. Some of the faster boats chose to sail the alternative route and, interestingly, the top two finishers on corrected times - Yare & Bure 'Fox', and second-placed overall Yeoman, Roger Hannant's 'Firefly', crewed by Harrison Ryder and Chris Bolton - both opted for what was seen as the 'riskier' route, sailing to Lower Bure first and Potter Heigham later, the gamble paying off. Fox sailed both legs first, whilst Firefly left Ludham Bridge until the early hours of the morning.
Except for fourth placed River Cruiser 'Vacuna', helmed by Simon Bryan, the remainder of the top ten finishers sailed to Hickling first. Approximately two-thirds of the fleet tackled the Ant to Ludham Bridge leg on the way out and, likewise, the majority sailed South Walsham Broad early, for fear of the wind dropping amongst the trees later. The sailing was also extremely slow on the return passage between Horning Church to the Clubhouse, taking some four hours for even the fastest boats.
The race leaders looked to be on for a fast finish but hopes of this soon faded with the dying breeze, which was reduced to next to nothing shortly after nightfall. In one direction boats were moving well with the tide, but the vast majority ground to a halt on reaching the turning buoy at the Stracey Arms on the Lower Bure at around 10pm, with estimates suggesting around 50 boats gathering there for several hours, all desperately trying to hold onto their positions and not drift backwards or, at the very least, not lose forward momentum.
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This proved challenging for the guardships positioned around the course, with the team at the Stracey Arms seeing competitors pass them several times, and the next guardship at Stokesby inundated when the fleet finally started moving once the breeze suddenly picked up in the early hours.
After over twelve hours of racing, first boat home was Tim Frary's River Cruiser 'India', at just past midnight, notwithstanding a frustratingly slow evening passage back through Horning. As the fastest boat entered into the race, he had also been the first boat to clear Potter Heigham and would finish third overall on handicap.
Next back were the Norfolk Punts - unusually, despite showing promising early form, they did not make a finisher in the top twenty. It was a long night for many, with a steady flow of finishers throughout Sunday morning, several taking it to the last few minutes to finish, and one within 20 seconds of being timed out! Unfortunately for some, timings were not on their side, and six boats were outside of the 24-hour time limit, despite their best efforts.
As always, the Bridges delivered plenty of excitement and drama, and this year drew large crowds eager to cheer on the sailors. There were the usual spectacular mast shootings, competitors leaving it until the very last second to drop their rigs, with masterclasses from 'Fox', River Cruiser 'Ladybird' helmed by Ben Knight, and Yare & Bure 'Moonmoth' helmed by James Street, to name but a few; several had perfected their technique to the point where they raised their rigs to sail smoothly between the two bridges at Potter Heigham.
Of course, there were dramas too - at Potter Heigham, one crew member fell overboard, their lifejacket inflated and floated them under the bridge before they were safely rescued by their team. There were also the near misses and close calls under the bridges.
With 74 finishers, sailors were agreed that the race was all it should be - a true test of perseverance, endurance and seamanship, the very qualities that inspired the race's creation back in 1961.
The race team were once again joined at the start by David Hastings MBE, who is delighted to see the race still going strong. David was creator of the Race, coming up with the idea some 64 years ago, along with Peter Mallender, Dickie Keogh and Eric Smith. Whilst so much has changed since that first race, particularly safety of competitors, the race was somewhat reminiscent of those early conditions - with very little of the crescent moon and increasing winds during the early hours providing for some exciting and thrilling sailing conditions as competitors navigated the winding Broads waterways in the pitch dark, narrowly avoiding each other.
Completing the top ten results were Paul Wren and Jordan Rumsby in Wayfarer 'Haven't a Clue' finishing fifth overall - and first among a strong fleet of Wayfarers; Kevin Edwards in Norfolk One Design Dinghy 'Minnie' finishing sixth; seventh was Peter Brown in Rebel 'Rothay'; eighth was David Means in Yare & Bure 'Painted Jezebel'; and two River Cruisers - Peter Goshawk's 'Grayling' and Roger Wilson's 'Halcyon' - coming ninth and tenth respectively.
More information about the race can be found on www.3rr.uk and www.horning-sailing.club