Scottish Islands Peaks Race

[andymcp]

Anyone done this before? Sounds like a great weekend and an interesting way to spend a couple of days on the west coast.

A few headcases at work are up for the running part so would be interesting to hear any experiences on this fine forum.

 

[bilbobaggins]

I've 'been there, done that' a few years ago. It's a cult race, and the several competitions-within-competitions are fought over energetically and skilfully. Many teams/crews came back year after year, and the rivalries are intense......

That said, it's great fun, but both boat crew and hills team need to be very well prepared for sudden bad weather, and all will be reliant on really sound seamanship if/when it turns nasty around the Mull of Kintyre.

Your running team will be up against some top pro teams, and the safety organisation on the hills is superb. Certainly one of the most interesting events around our shores.

Enjoi!

/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[PembrokeshirePromise]

I did it last year - mate from work is a very good runner and he had another mate who was as well.

All was going well (we were up with the trimarans at Jura) until his mate hurt his knee on the Paps and yours truely ended up having to do the Paps (I did run to the chippy about a year back) - I took a tad longer than they were planning on - missed the tide round the Mull and finished about half way down the fleet.

But it was all great fun. If you come from a sailing racing perspective its a bit bizarre - no handicaps, rules broadly interpreted - but the race is won or lost on the hills and getting through the tidal gates I think. The running side is all a bit more serious I think - the good runners all seemed to know each other (or at least my mate seemed to know everyone who passed me on the hills !) and are texting their times as they go round. They also seem to know that they are going to do this 25 mile run with 4000ft climb in 2 hrs 50 - not 2 hrs 40 and certainly not as long as 3hrs unless disaster has struck

Some people had done it for the last 15 years or so ! I'd definitely do it again if I had an excuse (bit of a long way from Pembs for the w/e)

Have fun - or PM me if you want any specifics

 

[PembrokeshirePromise]

P.S. They aren't joking about the oars - and getting these workable can make a huge difference getting through a hole (and we were rowing a 6 ton 36ft MAB) - 1kt an oar

If you want to make some money go to Oban the day before with a light wind forecast and a trailer of huge oars /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[bilbobaggins]

In light conditions, getting away from Oban Bay can be interesting. The anchorage area then was known as 'foul ground' and on previous years several boats had remained firmly hooked up when they should have been 'up, up and away'. My owner one year had a light trimaran, and he was particularly worried about getting his hook too firmly 'ooked, so I cadged a couple of square metres of 'cod end' netting from a pile of ragged stuff on the fish quay, ran a double warp through to make a large purse-shape, and embarked that along with a cwt. of boulders off the beach. Came we to our anchor spot, to await our runners doing the first lap around the town, and down went our netting 'purse' with all the boulders inside, as a drudge-anchor.

An hour or so later, with our runners safe aboard, we simply eased one end of our doubled 'anchor warp', hauled up on the other end, until it was free of the purse with all its boulders, all left on the bottom. And off we went.....

/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[NormanS]

Ah! so it was you who caused my anchor to grumble all night!
Where else have you done this?

 

[Spyro]

Presumably you have seen this?
http://www.sipr.zetnet.co.uk/

Done it a couple of times several years ago (sailing not running). Would love to do it again. It's on my to do list now that I have a new boat. Too soon to get prepared for it this year though.
Thoroughly enjoyable event in spectacular settings.

 

[andymcp]

Thanks for all the comments, fairly certain we're going to give it a go. Had one runner drop out unfortunately through injury (although I'm not convinced that waking up and realising what you're volunteered for counts as injury....) but other than that it's May 15th, here we come /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

(Once we've got the small matter of making the boat's bum perfect again, fixing the windlass, identifying and plugging the stern leak, fitting the new sails and replacing the bilge pump sorted.)

 

[andymcp]

Well, we gave it a go. 49 entries, 29 retirements, pretty hairy conditions on sea and hills. Finished 2nd in class and 9th overall - absolutely delighted with that and must admit the race was everything people had said it would be, and more.

Would recommend it to anyone wanting an adventure, and the biggest kudos of all must go to the organisers who somehow put on a sensational event with (this year) no sponsor and largely volunteer efforts. Apparently the BBC filmed it this year and it will be on an hour long Adventure Show programme in July.

 

[awol]

Well you were nearly 1st in class! If we had been a bit more successful in abandoning the race Marisca would not have beaten you! Lying hove-to between MoK and Rathlin made the difference between imminent death for one of our runners and sleep - he was bad enough for long enough that we were considering calling for medevac. It meant that one of the sailors had to run Goatfell - believe it or not, he had actually wanted to do one of the runs and had brought his kit "just in case". The afflicted runner had intended getting onto dry land and staying there (bit difficult on an island, but he was very determined) but the news that we were 10th boat to arrive and 1st in Class 3 rejuvenated him wonderfully. We had presumed that with no other boats in sight we were somewhere off the back of the fleet and were just carrying on because it's the thing to do.
Well done, but was I glad we were in a MAB - you must have taken a battering and a half in your Elan. And I echo your thanks to and admiration for the organisers and marshalls.

 

[andymcp]

Well congratulations, and very well deserved win in the class. We met your runners coming off Goat Fell as we were heading up (I ran Mull and Goat Fell as well as skippering, a mistake I won't be making again) and congratulated them on their class win at the time. Little did we know we would be having our own drama on the way down. Second runner hit his physical wall and went downhill badly - nearly called in marshalls to retrieve him but the news that this would retire the team after all the efforts so far somehow got him extra energy reserves and we half ran, half walked back to boat.

We'll buy you a class-winners beer or two if we bump into you over the season or at the dinner.

 

[maxi77]

Have done it twice, great fun though only sailing for me, running for a bus is a form of self torture in my opinion so no way will you find me running the hills.

Was offered a berth for this years but unfortunately I could not spare the time.

 

[awol]

Update from SIPR - only 15 out of 48 starters finished. Makes me wonder who were the wise ones!
Only damage on Marisca was a weed-blocked filter and a lost sail/batten slide eyebolt and shackle thingy. There was an end of a line caught in the forehatch and the lassie sleeping beneath it said nothing as she and all the runners gear got soaked - wish she'd mentioned it.

 

[andymcp]

That's an insane number of retirements, must admit the conditions were a touch testing though. Our damage list wasn't too drastic either - the VHF packed in for transmissions for reasons as yet unidentified, the sprayhood ripped (I know a couple of others suffered the same fate) and our first reefing line needs replaced. Oh, and I fear our wind instruments may need cheking as they reported a wind of a steady 9 knots between Jura and Arran... Other than that the Elan looked after us astonishingly well. One of our crew who normally sails a heavy wooden long-keeler couldn't get the grin off his face as we rounded the Mull, shouting "She loves this!!" as we surfed from one wave to the next. Does make me question his definition of loving things.

 

[PeteMcK]

Congrats to all those who finished. We (Hot'n'Tot) left Jura at 1pm on Saturday, 3rd in Class 3, nipping at 2nd place Nuage's transom, but knowing we'd be hard pushed to make the tide at the Mull.

With the wind cranking progressively into the mid and high 20s, we went down from No1 to No3 at about 4pm, having briefly passed Nuage. When it reached into the 30s soon after, off Machrihanish by this time, and was still ratcheting upwards with every passing squall, I decided that, in the rapidly developing conditions, the last place I wanted to be was at the Mull of Kintyre - we knew we'd missed the tide by this time too - and offered the crew the option of sheltering for one, maybe two (or ?), tides at Gigha, or quitting and running for the canal. Time constraints dictated the canal and within 30 mins of turning away we were surfing at 15 knots under main alone and, clocking 50 knots true wind, the decision vindicated. We put out a VHF warning call to the fleet to that effect but heard no responses.

As far as we can make out, only the big leading boats in the youth class (fast boats and shorter running courses) made it through on that first tide before it really blew up. Internet accounts from lead boat of Class 1 and of the fleet, F28 Blue Chip, and from Co32 Calypso, about an hour ahead of us and leading Class 3, indicate that they both took hammerings, the stuff of nightmares, at the Mull before retiring, in each case with 3 out of 5 crew seasick and the other 2 exhausted. This with the Symonds brothers on Calypso having the record for the overall running time tantalisingly within reach. Oyster 35 Nuage blew her main at the Mull and turned back too - no news of conditions on board.

We're gutted that we had to stop but, in my judgement, to have ploughed on from the point at which we retired would very quickly have taken us into the very worst of it (true, as it turned out) and could have been quite likely to put us in a survival situation. Having experienced no sickness, no injuries, no damage and no terror, my crew, though naturally disappointed, were rather happy bunnies in front of the fire at the Crinan Hotel bar on Saturday night!

 

[andymcp]

Well we had a rather alarming reminder of good luck this weekend that we're glad didn't happen during the race. Bringing the boat back from Troon to Kip, we were gently drifting among the container ships moored on the Clyde when the steering started to sieze up, finally packing in completely just outside Kip. A quick shout on the VHF and they came to tow us into the diesel berth where some helpful chaps dismantled the binnacle this morning. Apparently a bearing inside the wheel mechanism had given way and has put the gearing beyond repair - replacement parts to be ordered as soon as poss.

All things considered, glad it happened this weekend and not last! We saw your boat just along the pontoon from us and did keep an eye out to say hello.

 

[bairdag]

We were in the race - and the conditions at the Mull were quite bad - we got 44kts at times and a good 5 rising to a steady 7. We saw Blue chip the trimaran before she retired - complete white water due to wind against tide. We initially tacked to cover her but then tacked out again after 15-30 minutes as the sea was too big for us and we got fairly good conditions further out.

Do you know if the people who retired were going close in at the Mull? Bejaysus came round at slack water and said that it wasn't horrendous.

G

 

[PeteMcK]

Bejaysus left Jura just after 10am on Saturday so she's probably hit the Mull just as the tide was just beginning to run east. I think the wind speed would be a bit lower then too so she probably got the best of it.

Of the boats leaving Jura between noon and mid-afternoon, only North Star, Bequia and Incandescent, all 40+ footers, seem to have got round, all presumably on the next tide, i.e., about midnight. By 10pm it had eased a lot where we were at the top end of the Sound of Jura and I was certainly asking myself whether we should have gone with my original thoughts - to backtrack to Gigha overnight or to heave-to or anchor close inshore for a few hours at Machrihanish. (Hindsight being 20-20 vision and all that...)

 

[andymcp]

Not sure how it relates to other people's experiences but we got a text from Bequia to say they were 13 miles short of the lighthouse at about quarter to eight on the Saturday evening. The next we heard they were passing Sanda at half one in the morning, and the skipper hadn't left the deck the whole time, describing it as a 'terrible hammering'. The timing of when he said it had eased off was about in line with the tide turning.

 

[PeteMcK]

In that case, I'm feeling much better about wimping out!