The Boat

The Three Peaks Yacht Race doesn’t necessarily require an all out racing mono-hull. There is no handicapping in the race for different boats and there is no limit in size either. However some of the channels that have to be navigated (see Sailing Legs in 'Reports' section) are very shallow and hence don’t lend themselves to a deep draught yacht. On top of this you have to be able to row the yacht, when the wind disappears! Not really what yachts are designed for. Therefore there are a number of considerations that need to be taken into account.

As for us….?

We didn’t do any of this, we found the only boat available for charter at such short notice on the whole of the West Coast and took that!

However our boat – a Maxi 1000 34ft sloop named Sunfish – didn’t turn out to be too ill suited for the race, all be it a little slow and cruising orientated.


Flamingo Yacht Charters owner Muir Anderson kindly took on the challenge of preparing the boat ready for the race along with oars and rollocks to suit!

She has a powerful fractional rig, with roller furling for the jib and single line slab reefing for the mainsail.

She is tiller steered, and has a 22HP auxiliary, for motoring and manoeuvring. Her interior layout has a double after cabin to port, and a roomy heads compartment to starboard, with plenty of storage capacity for all our race gear and the cuisine ingredients.

Sunfish was delivered by Andy Davies (Manager of the Team No Limit shore crew) and some of Muir’s friends from its port of registration, Ardrossan, to Pwhelli in North Wales, ready for the arrival of the team a few days in advance of the race. Here she was temporarily christened ‘Team No Limit’.

Would we use her again?

Not if we wanted to win! However she is a very capable and safe design in which to undertake the challenge.

Our thanks to Muir Anderson and Flamingo Yacht Charters for all their help.