For those of you that have still not heard, we finished a very creditable 5th. A detailed race log will follow shortly.
One Day to Go...
After a blustery night on a mooring at Fishguard, with gusts of 50knots recorded on the instruments, the boat makes the final part of the delivery trip to Barmouth, leaving at 0530 in the morning. Barely 10 miles out of Fishguard, we lose sight of land apart from a brief glimpse now again through the mist and it is not until we get to the outer buoy at Barmouth that we catch our first real sight of land. The voyage was made a bit more bearable by the arrival of a pod of 15-20 dolphins which stayed with us and played around the boat for at least twenty minutes, taking turns to glide back and forth around the bow.
Two Days To Go...
The boat leaves Milford Haven in a brisk force 6. Onboard are Adrian and his father who is on his second leg of the delivery trip. The boat punches through the confused waters of St Anne's shoals and the voyage to Fishguard is relatively uneventful, until Strumble Head that is where 40 knot winds against the tide whip up sizeable waves and sees Hero surfing towards Fishguard at 11.5 knots just under her storm jib.
Three Days To Go...
Following a brief period in one of Dale Sailing's boatyards, Hero was picked up by their 35t Wise boat hoist and was moved very carefully to the launching bay where she was lowered in by the very experienced yard staff. The boat will leave for Barmouth tomorrow, via Fishguard and we expect to arrive in Barmouth around 1500 on Friday.
1 Week To Go...
Part of our extended shore crew (Trevor Owens and Peter Sheriff) then took the boat from Swansea to Milford Haven, where she was lifted out at Neyland Yacht Haven by James Dunlop Christie of Dale Sailing with their 35t Wise boat hoist. Once the boat was in the cradle, the team set about pressure washing and antifouling the hull, cleaning the boat up and undertaking a few minor running repairs.
With the majority of the work completed on the boat, final preparations included both passage and route planning.
2 Weeks To Go...
James and a few other members of the team picked Hero up from Portishead and undertook a pretty gruelling night passage to Swansea, which tested everyone's mental toughness if nothing else. Wind strength was not too bad, ranging from between force 6 to 8, however the most uncomfortable aspect of the voyage was the driving rain and the cold. Unfortunately tide times were not conducive to getting alongside anywhere in Swansea and so the boat had to stand off for a few hours until such time as the Swansea lock was open.
4 Weeks To Go…
Passage planning has now started in earnest and the runners are stepping up their training regime.
The boat will be returning to Milford Haven towards the end of the month for final race preparation and practice before making the passage to Barmouth for the start.
Dale Sailing (www.dale-sailing.co.uk) of Neyland have kindly agreed to sponsor us by way of providing a lift out, pressure wash and launch a week before the race. Probably one of the largest and most well know boat storage and repair yards in Wales, Dale are also synomonous world wide with the Dale Nelson, their award winning range of motorboats. Their kind offer will give the crew of Hero the assurance the hull is 100% race prepared prior to the start.
3 Months To Go…
Three months to go and preparations are well underway, both in terms of race preparation and sponsorship.
The team got together for a day down at Dale Sailing’s storage yard in Neyland, on the Milford Haven Waterway to undertake work on Hero, including hull preparation and general running repairs. Before travelling down Chris and Ben ran to the top of Pen-y-fan in the Brecon Beacons, did a full days work on the boat and then ran to the top of Pen-y-fan in the evening.
Further sponsorship in the form of matching clothing for the crew was gratefully received from Mike Keen of Helly Hansen Factory outlets and also from James Hall of Spinlock UK, who has loaded us five of their innovative Deck Pro lifejackets with integral harness which will enhance the safety of all of the crew.
Towards the end of the month, Hero was launched and several of the crew along with a few other intrepid volunteers undertook a two day passage to Portishead, via Swansea. This proved to be a good shakedown for all concerned as windspeed during the trip was well within the Force 9 band on the first day which Hero and the crew coped admirably with, clocking up a maximum speed of 19.75 knots at one point.
We have also secured financial sponsorship from Oberon Engineering Services of Shrewsbury, Brendan Hegarty, Artec Construction and SIAC Construction.
5 Months To Go…
Another promising sponsorship lead proves successful with Shell (www.shell.com) making a significant donation to the project, which provides a welcome boost both in terms of us being able to fund the venture and at the same time raising funds for our nominated charities, which it is decided will be the RNLI (www.RNLI.org.uk) and Ty Hafan Children’s Hospice (www.tyhafan.org.uk)
We have also received a generous donation from Pains Wessex (www.painswessex.com). The sailors amongst us have been long standing consumers of Pains Wessex flares and have always been a good deal more than satisfied with the reliability and on the rare occasion performance of the products. Given the hardships, concerns and fatigue that we will have to deal with during the Three Peaks Yacht Race, it is a great relief to have the support of Pains Wessex and the provision of Pains Wessex flares meaning that we will have one less thing to worry about! Click here for further info www.adpr.co.uk/page/CMPR64 .
6 Months To Go…
The team has been decided and consists of the three sailors, James, Dan and Adrian and the two runners, Ben and Chris. It’s early days yet, however the immediate priority is to decide which charities we are going to support and set about raising funds to that end and also to fund the venture.
Despite the fact that they are already extremely fit, Ben and Chris have step things up a gear and start training in earnest so that they can be confident that they will be in top condition for the start of the race.
Not to be outdone, the sailors are busy looking for ways to raise money and also start putting together equipment lists of items essential to the success of Team Hero. Mention must be made at this stage of the efforts of James’ girlfriend Lydia who has collated much of the information received and put it into a brochure format that can be sent out to potential sponsors.
Following a few initial phone calls, almost immediately, we were successful in receiving support from Westaway Sails (www.westawaysails.co.uk) of The Sail Loft, down in Devon who have kindly agreed to clean and service Hero’s sails and also to provide us with team clothing.
Buzinet Solutions (www.buzinet.net ) have kindly agreed to design the initial template and host our website thus enabling us to get better exposure in terms of attracting further sponsorship and also to offer those sponsors already onboard additional publicity. Buzinet’s projects have ranged from brand creation for micro businesses through to complex multi-site design and development solutions for large businesses and locals authorities.
We also received a further boost in the form of a donation of antifouling from International Paints (http://www.yachtpaint.com/uk/default.asp). International are world renowned for the quality of their products and the use of this antifouling will ensure that Hero’s hull is in perfect condition.