The Three Peaks Yacht Race
Sail up the wild West Coast and run to the summits of Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis, the highest peaks of Wales, England & Scotland. A classic adventure race for teams of runners and sailors, since 1977.
16. LET'S RUN
Yacht Name: Tactix
Length: 10m
Yacht Type: X99
IRC Rating: 0.987
Hull Colour: Cream with 2 Blue Stripes
Draught: 1.75m
Sail No: GBR1934T
Port of Origin: Cowes
Tilman Trophy: TBC
"Never again! What's the date of the next race?"
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The charity LETS RUN are collecting for is CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), which is dedicated to preventing male suicide.
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You can suport them here.
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Dave Bird – Skipper
Occupation: Semi-retired
Age: 72
Gender: Male
Nationality: British
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Dave Bird has competed in the race 15 times. The first time he did the race was so long ago he can’t remember the year, let alone the date. The boat he sailed, Shefever, a She 32, came last. But what an enjoyable experience. It was the last year the race used Ravenglass as the stop for Scafell.
Dave joined the Three Peaks Yacht Race committee that year and the following year marshaled on Ben Nevis. (He has also been Race Director.) On a morning 'off duty’ Dave walked the Ben and at the bottom of the zigzags Dave met Darren an ex-Para who was a keen runner. Dave kept in touch and Darren told a friend, John, another ex-Para who then joined the team.
The following year Dave, and his friend Ian, went all out to get a boat that was capable of getting a good position in the race. The boat was a new Reflex 38, sponsored by Charter Continuum a computer software company. The team was joined by another Barmouth local, Martin Parouti. The charter company wanted the team to use the race to find any snagging that needed before the boat was sold.
From the start of the race, the team followed 2 professional sailors on their own boats until Caernarfon where both leading boats ran aground and they passed them. Charter Continuum finished the race in 1st position.
Dave won the race again two years later with Geoff West on his Reflex 38, named Spirit of Barmouth, and has done the race on several different yachts coming almost every other position.
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This year he is with Geoff on another of his boats, the X99 Tactix. (Geoff won the race on this boat in 1999 and Dave skippered it to 6th place in 2006.)
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He says its not winning, its taking part and finishing that’s important to most teams. Mind he thinks the end of race party also has something to do with it!
It also comes down to the amount of money the race has raised over the years. His teams have raised anything from £800 to £18000 for different charities. The race itself has raised into the hundreds of thousands for charities throughout the world.
Dave’s been asked several times what's the sense in doing the race so many times. He says is if he had any sense he’d stay in bed and watch it from the house. Dave says the reason he does the race is because of the money raised every year for chosen charities. Mind the cheap food and drinks and camaraderie in the yacht club and the teams he’s raced with has something to do with it.
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Geoff West – Skipper
Occupation: Retired
Age: 62
Gender: Male
Nationality: British
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Geoff is back again having first attempted the race in 1998 only missing four races since then. (He has done one more than Dave.) His first race win was on 'Tactix' in 1999, and his 6th and most recent win was in 2014 in his Reflex 38, 'Lightning Reflex'. (He skippered Lightning Reflex to the current record time for the race of 2 days 14 hrs 22 mins in 2002.)
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"It would be good to finish this year. The last two attempts we didn't manage to get to the end."
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John Williams - Navigator
Occupation: Retired (Sort of)
Age; Even older than Dave!
Gender: Male
Nationality: British
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Ocean YM, likes ‘on the edge boats’, long time skiff sailor, Marine Engineer and general dogsbody, also quite good at fishing.
Navigated class winners in Sydney Hobart, Round Britain and Ireland and other tricky races acquiring a wealth of offshore experience in all sorts of strange craft from square riggers to Volvo 70s.
Has participated at all levels from grinder to Skipper in all the classic offshore race over 600 nm at least once including RORC transatlantics. On a more leisurely note has sailed as far North as N.E. Greenland and as far South as Cape Horn but relative rookie with only third 3 Peaks. Consequently am in awe of the experience of my compatriots this time around.
Lee Kemp - Runner
Occupation: Let's Run Director
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Nationality: British
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Lee is an Elite level runner. He's run for GB, is a qualified running coach, PT Instructor and has in background of Sports Science, accountancy, and Sports Injuries.
Lee has completed numerous trail, fell and Ultra distance mountain races, including the UTMB CCC, Laveredo Trail, Welsh 3000, Snowdon marathon and Trail marathon and was the last Esk Valley Fell running champion before COVID hit.
Lee has competed in the race before, but unfortunately for him and his crew they had to abandon after hitting heavy storms near Oban.
He hopes this year the weather will be kinder and he finally gets to go up Ben Nevis.
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Shelli Gordon - Runner
Occupation: Owner of Let's Run Store
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Nationality: British
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Shelli started running as an 11yr old with her local club, quickly moving straight onto the trails, and 30+yrs later she is still going (just not as strong). She completed her first 25-mile trail race at 13yrs, with a 56 ml trail ultra at 15yrs.
Since then Shelli has completed numerous ultras, including the Hardmoors 55, 60, 110, 160, and 200, The Lykewake numerous times, including an outright win, along with UTMB in 2014, 2016, and The Spine 268mls in 2019 (2nd Lady, 17th overall).
Whilst Shelli is at home at any distance she excels at the longer ultra-marathons with an outstanding achievement in the 2015 160 mile Hardmoors race, where she finished 1st overall in 40hrs 33 minutes, setting a new female course record.
Shelli has two children, Joel (22) and Isla (15), as well as grandson Colby, who has been introduced to the running buggy, as well as lots of animals to help with the endurance (tiredness) training.
