Time Out claim top prize in 3 Peaks race

The National Sports

By ERIC PIET
TIME OUT claimed the overall winners title of the Akzo Nobel 3 Peaks Race on Saturday taking the trophy, a K3000 PPL Slipway voucher plus a bottle of rum.
The keel boat team ‘Time Out’ comprised six members from different nationalities.
They included Cameron Taylor (skipper, Australia), Tara Taylor (runner, Canada), Richard McLaren (crew member, New Zealand), Rose McLaren (crew member, PNG), Christopher Lorho (crew member, New Caledonia) and John Grey (crew member, Australia).
They recorded a time of 2 hours 39 minutes 45 seconds (2.39.45) ahead of Avuano (2.45.16, second) and Racketeer (2.50.04, third).
Royal Papua Yacht Club captain Simon Anderson said the winning time was two minutes slower than the last year’s record.
Anderson said the slower finish time to the conditions (strong winds) compared to last year.
“The fastest times this year were about two minutes slower than that of last year probably because of strong winds in which the boats could not run as quickly and for runners, they were running in the middle of the day in hot and humid conditions,” Anderson said.
The boats (hobies) started 11am and raced to Manubada Island, then on to Lolorua Island finishing at the RPYC marina entrance.
Upon crossing the finish line the runners leaped ashore at the marina loading dock, Hobies at the boat ramp and made their way out of the yacht club to begin the grueling Burns Peak leg.
A jubilant Taylor said his team were happy to be the overall best performers in the race and was thankful to the organisers for a well-organised event.
“The event had a fantastic turn out and was very well organised. We really enjoyed it,” Taylor said.
Taylor said it was no surprise coming at the top of this race as he and wife Tara had previously participated in two races in 2015 and 2016.
“We have done a couple of races and this was our third one,” he said of his team’s experience.
“My team had also participated previously and we all knew what to do as we had prior experience and we expected a good outcome,” Taylor told The National after the event. The Hobies winners were David John and Noel Daubu, who came in first with a time of 2 hours 35 minutes (2.35.00).
Harry Haro and Basky Charlie were second (2.35.51) and Upa Kila Jr Jason Reragi on third sport (2.36.41).