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2005 Press Release No 7
News update – 22 March 2005
Easter Challenge – sailing offshore and up the mountains in Hydro Tasmania Three Peaks Race
The Hydro Tasmania Three Peaks Race, Australia’s most demanding sporting
combination of short-handed offshore sailing and endurance mountain running,
has attracted teams from three States for the four-day Easter event.
The 17th Three Peaks Race starts from Beauty Point on the Tamar River
this coming Good Friday afternoon, taking the fleet of 14 yachts, their
sailors
and runners around the spectacular eastern coastline of Tasmania to
finish at Hobart on the Derwent River on Easter Monday.
Thousands of spectators are expected to line Inspection Head Wharf
and the banks of the Tamar down to Low Head, and also follow the fleet
on
spectator craft out into Bass Strait.
First stopover is Lady Barron, the little fishing port on Flinders
Island, where the running teams face a cross-country dash before scaling
the
granite peak of Mt Strzelecki. After completing the run, the yachts
sail down Tasmania’s
East Coast to Coles Bay for a bushland climb to Mt Freycinet.
Finally, after reaching Hobart, either sailing around Tasman Island
or taking the short-cut through the Denison Canal at Dunalley, the
runners
face the final challenge of Mt Wellington, towering above Tasmania’s
capital city.
The teams include several yachts and crews who contested the 60th Rolex
Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, along with many of the best cross-country
runners in the nation.
The retirement of four times winning team API Mersey Pharmacy has left
year’s runner-up, Elite Renovations, a Chamberlin 9.1 catamaran skippered
by Phillip Marshall from Devonport, as the early favourite for this weekend’s
Three Peaks Race.
Challenging for overall honours will be the NSW catamaran Incinerator,
Steven Toth’s Chamberlin 48 and two-times winner Nick Edmunds with
his Radford 47 monohull Haphazard from Sidmouth on the Tamar. All three
have experienced sailors and runners in their teams.
Entries from Victoria include Ocean Racing Club of Victoria manager
Bob Tanner who is competing for the first time in his 11.28m sloop
Brunetti,
and Anthony Cook’s Beneteau Oceanis 361, Liberte, back for a second
year.
Hydro Tasmania is sponsoring the event for a third year and Hydro representative
Jane Crosswell has taken her involvement a step further by competing
as a runner aboard David Taylor’s ex-Sydney Farr 37, Pippin, now based
in Hobart.
Other Tasmanian yachtsmen competing include Jeff Cordell from Hobart
in his Mumm 36 sloop, Underwater Video Systems, Launceston’s Jason van
Zetten in his Adams 13 sloop, Jail House Grill, and Ross Clark from Exeter
on the Tamar with his new 11.8 metre sloop, sailing as City of West Tamar.
Race media contact: Terry Travers – 0408 188 683 or
Written by Peter Campbell, 0419 385 028, for the Hydro Tasmania Three
Peaks Race.
Peter Campbell
Sydney, Australia
Ph: +61 2 9869 8197
Mob: + (0) 419 385 028
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