We have begun to upload the mountain of imagry that already has been collected in the early stages of the race.  Head over to our Gallery to view the colourful race start.

http://www.threepeaks.org.au/coppermine/cpg1410/index.php

Team 10: Carey Hire

They may have a rep for mucking around but when it comes down to the sailing, it will be serious business for skipper Tristan Gourlay and crew Piers Findlay and James Carey. The crane driver, boat builder and carpet layer have thousands of ocean miles under their belts, impressive experience for possibly the youngest crew on average age. The Adams 11 will want plenty of breeze to show her speed but the boys will be comfortable handling - and pushing - her in any conditions.

The boat has competed well previously gaining a second and third monohull but has also retired from one of the roughest races with a loose keel.

Runner Adrian Young has returned home from New Zealand for the race and at the last minute was paired up with mainlander Ian Frankze, who competed last year for BWR Multihulls.

Team 9: Don't Panic Racing

This is a team that could well be panicking: star runner Aubrey Henricks managed to tear his calf last weekend, and the team had a fantastic start to today's race - just a few seconds too early and had to turn around and re-start.

But if I know Rob and Jamie they will be far from panicking, in fact they'll be sitting back enjoying the ride to Flinders and probably catching other boats while they do it. This is a very experienced team, having competed in previous races together on Peter Newman's catamaran Plan Four and doing plenty of their own offshore sailing too. But somehow or other they still managed to run aground in Franklin Sound last year, earning a penalty of several hours. I'm sure they still arrived with a grin on their faces though.

Aubrey is still set to run - he's as tough as nails - with partner Doug Grubert from Kayena.

Team 8: Team Wildfire

Skippered by Malcolm Robinson of Bellerive, Team Wildfire is the race's second fully-crewed entrant. At 31' she is the smallest monohull in the fleet and carries Jon Ettershank, Julie Hunt, Nic Jansen as sailors and NSW runners Carl Barker and Gerry Grimes.

Carl and Gerry warmed up for the event with the Six Foot Track marathon in their home state earlier this month.
The Six Foot Track is a 45km trail that follows the route of the original 1884 horse track from Katoomba to Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains. Capped at 850 entrants, it is the biggest 100% off-road running event in Australia. It was Carl and Gerry's fifth Six Foot Track Marathon each but their firstas friends. They were introduced to each other through the Three Peaks Race. Carl was part of the crew in 2008 but this will be Gerry's first time in a Three Peaks Race. The team is aiming to improve on its 2008 performance, in which it was ninth in the fully-crewed division.

I intend to research the sailing side of this team more thoroughly tomorrow.

Team 7: VisitFlindersIsland.com.au

or "visitflindersislandcomdot" as they were called on the radio sked...

These guys are going out of their way to be noticed with a fluoro orange prescence on the water and on the wharf. They have a giant fluoro orange asymmetric and even sailed out of the river with their orage storm sail up.

This boat is a cruising version of her sister ship, 14m Chamberlain cat BWR Multihulls, which raced in the last two Three Peaks races.

This event is only her third as she is brand new and basically untested except for the 2009 Launceston to Hobart. But the crew, which includes Flinders Island deputy mayor Michael Grimshaw, skipper Steve Laird and David Jones, will make the trip in luxury with three toilets on board!

David is the most experienced sailor having done one previous race with a Navy team, but is looking forward to the challenge of stepping up to the racing division. They are hoping for a bit of a blow to get the big cat to stretch her legs.

Northern Tassie runners John Cannell and John Wilson are both previous competitors and are in good shape for the race. John Cannell finished in the top 10 in the Cradle Mountain Run and also placed well in the 50km Four Beaches.

Together they are making a very colourful and enthusiastic advertisement for Flinders Island.

Team 6: Peccadillo

I have under-rated this team before but not again! Victorian skipper Charles Meredith and his crew including David Blake, Russell Zylstra and Gareth Parker (sorry guys I'm not sure who your other runner is until you arrive in Flinders) sailed a great race with Whistler and Haphazard in the battle to the heads this afternoon. I can tell that you will be a force in the multihull racing division this year.

Charles loves cruising and racing around Tasmania and has returned for his third Three Peaks this year.

Another team that I look forward to finding out more about as the race progresses.

Team 5: Deguello

John Brierley skippers this Crowther 14m cat, which, being a bigger and heavier boat, will be strong in the multihull racing division if it blows.

Its experienced sailing team includes Alistair Mearns who has four previous races to his name and Launceston sailor Bill Rostron, who has done much offshore sailing with prestigious northern Tasmanian crews such as Allusive and Blue Sky. Runner Allan Hood recently won the Cradle Mountain 82km run in spectacular fashion so is well on form and is running with Victorian Mal Grimmett.

Deguello competed in the first two Three Peaks races held skippered by her previous owner and late designer, Lock Crowther. It has since been refitted and re-rigged and will provide a comfortable ride to Hobart.

Team 4: Haphazard

Haphazard, and Hazardatas before her, have probably been Team 4 for the last 21 years. Sidmouth's Nick Edmunds, his accomplice David Wright and sons Sam and Ross, plus north-west coasters Andrew Jones and Jarrod Polson are the well-oiled fully-crewed sailing team. They have over 80 previous races between them.

Launceston runner John Claridge has also lent them his sailing experience when he's not asleep for the last five Three Peaks, while new recruit to the team this year is Charles Gunn - we hope they will form a Gunn running team.

The Edmundses (yes that includes "mum", Sal and Joel, Jodie and all the kids) are definitely part of the Three Peaks furniture.

Pauline provides a gourmet menu for the team while they're at sea but just in case Wrighty is there as the quality control officer (carbo loading in case he ever has to be back up runner. Hopefully he has been training because Ross and Sam haven't.)

The boys have redone the keel this year and lightened up the Radford 14 so we expect big things. Unfortunately they JUST missed out on the first to Low Head trophy again this year- maybe next year guys!

Team 3: Community Carbon

Now this is an interesting team that I am yet to find out much about, but definitely intend to. I hear the crew, comprising Victorian skipper Jeff Dusting and sailor Rick Pacey and Darwin's Graham Smith, plus runners Stuart Jacobson and Travis Tremayne, includes two ironmen.

The team also has an interesting goal in that they are fundraising to help take the Melbourne Zoo's platypus enclosure off the energy grid. They are clearly passionate about reducing their carbon footprint.

Their 50' Beneteau is the fleet's largest boat and only cruising division entrant.

To be updated as I find out more about this interesting group!

Team 2: Westbury-Mersey Pharmacy

is a team that really needs no introduction! Skipper Terry Travers, a Devonport Pharmacist, is a four-time previous winner in this 9m catamaran and, I think, a five-time runner up to Phil Marshall, an engineer from Squeaking Point - who this year happens to be on the same boat!

XS should be in the running to win this year's race with that experience on board - plus Terry's son Adam - but she's probably struggling under the weight of a few too many barnacles.

Runners Tim Piper and Jim Finlay, both triathletes from Launceston, are not carrying any extra weight though - both looking very fit. In the recent 50km Four Beaches run at Greens Beach Jim finished fourth - Tim was earning brownie points on wife Penny's birthday. Both are new dads so they will have a young cheer squad travelling round the course for support.

Tim has run several competitive races in the past, most notably with Mark Padgett on Jailhouse Grill in the 20th race. Jim also competed in that race but with the breakdown of his other runner, nursed several sailors around the race track. He was feeling quite nervous about this race and had never actually met Terry until this morning!

Since we have some spare time before the boats arrive in Flinders Island, I will attempt to give you a brief introduction to the competing teams - hopefully it will then be clearer who I'm talking about as the race progresses!

Team 1: Team Whistler

36' monohull in the racing division; skippered by barrister David Rees of Hobart, and crewed by car salesman Jory Linscott (at 25 the baby of the team), and accountant Tim Jones.

Runners Jacqui Guy (the only female in this year's race, and the female with the most races overall - 11) and Michael McIntyre. Both past winners of the Bruny Island 64km race. Jacqui's husband Mark is also a multi Three Peaks winning runner.

Their 2010 campaign is "Six Countries Two Peaks" as they hope to go on to conquer the British Three Peaks later this year. They have chartered last year's winning boat for the attempt and will be Tilman trophy competitors in both races. The whole crew will take on Mt Wellington, as they did last year, but try to reduce their time to 3 1/2 hours. They have been in solid training, both fitness-wise and sailing-wise all year, which showed this afternoon with their good teamwork gaining them third out of the river.

They did the entire offshore season in Hobart and on many occassions they fronted up to fun runs literally hours after finishing - good Three Peaks training! In one race, which David decided to jump off deck as an impromptu man overboard drill. Luckily he had taught his crew well and they went on to complete the race before returning to collect him. Just kidding....

But I did hear the sailors had to stop training the runners after they became more proficient at diesel engine mechanics than them.

Currently listening to 10pm radio sked conducted by Henry Jacobs of Tamar Sea Rescue. We can't hear the boats but Henry is repeating their positions. They are in much the same position plotted on the blog, which means it is working well.

After a lovely dinner at the Furneaux Tavern we have moved into our "house" for the next day and a bit - the TasPorts building at Lady Barron Wharf.

Flinders Island locals Robyn and Gerald Dilger are the head marshalls here and always extend us fantastic hospitality.

After the sked it seems the boats are moving relatively slowly with about 70 miles still to go. However Terry has reported experiencing about 18 knots and it seems to be swinging to the north-east, meaning the boats may have to beat in to Lady Barron.

This means a waiting game for volunteers and hopefully some sleep for the committee!

As the race committee settle in for an evening meal, the competitors in the race continue to make slow progress towards Lady Barron on Flinders Island. ETA is anyones guess but with a forecast of a freshening easterly for later tonight, there is a possibility of the first boat arriving in the first few hours of tomorrow morning. Keep an eye on the yacht tracker on www.threepeaks.org.au for up to minute race positions.

We have arrived in Flinders Island to a cold south-easterly. It hasn't reached the fleet yet; as we flew over they were wallowing in a windless hole - noticed visitflindersisland.com had its oars out as well as its distinctive orange spinnaker up.

Wow, what a spectacular start to the 22nd Three Peaks Race!
The ten boats are now out in Bass Strait heading for Flinders Island (only 90 something nautical miles to go!)
Saw some extremely close racing in the battle to the heads- Terry won by a very small margin from Nick's Haphazard - he interestingly used his asymmetrical kite on the pole to come back after having to re-start - good improvisation Nick.
Team Whistler was third out after a fantastic sail, beating a lot of much bigger and theoretically faster boats! Great teamwork from those guys.
Don't Panic Racing had a gun start- pity it was just a little too early.
This small fleet is going to produce some top quality racing.
We are now off to Flinders ourselves - check back tonight for further updates and PICS!!

The southerly is easing but there is no sign of a sea breeze with low cloud cover and cooler conditions, so we should see a spectacular downwind start - the first in about four years - with the fleet's spinnakers set.
Many of the teams are colourful and easily recognisable this year with the Haphazard team in their usual orange and green, Wildfire dressed appropriately in red, the visitflindersisland.com team visible in bright orange and Team Whistler in their white and black "Two Countries Six Peaks" kit. The boats are now on the water getting ready to race and the crowd on the wharf is building.

The wharf festival is underway and hundreds of people are enjoying the West Tamar hospitality, including food, wine, entertainment and of course the fantastic commentary by Kerry Finch and Pete Sluce.

The crew of the tug York Cove have put on an impressive display and the B14s competed in some short-course racing in front of the wharf.

Haphazard runners Charles Gunn and John Claridge are about to perform a demonstration of the runners' bag-check.

Unfortunately this year's start will not be "going off with a bang" as new legislation regarding fireworks in public places "has made it hard to fire a large cannon in the middle of a crowded wharf". Sticks in the mud! Perhaps a petition for the return of the cannon should be made?

Three Peaks Media may be offline for a short time around the race start, but Raoul is aiming to bring live video footage of the start to the website, so stay tuned.
At the moment we have a moderate but freshening southerly, a little stronger and not quite so sunny as is usual for Good Friday at Beauty Point!

The morning has been full of last-minute adjustments for the teams: Terry Travers' Westbury-Mersey Pharmacy will now be four-time previous winner, 9m Chamberlain cat XS.
Charles Meredith's crew on Peccadillo have been up the mast already after a frantic phone call to their Victorian rigger - "lucky he answered on Good Friday - he said he's not religious so it's okay" but the rigging adjustment turned out to be minor.
For several teams they are just meeting other team members for the very first time, including Terry's runner Jimmy Finlay.
A few nervous first-time runners have used the pre-race bag check to reassure themselves that yes they have remembered the Gus, the compass, the notepad and pencil, the map, the waterproofs, the polarfleeces, the thermals, the gloves......

Race director Peter Sluce conducted the race brief at 10am today with all 10 teams in attendance.
Easter eggs and weather forecasts were given to each team as they were reminded about safety, radio skeds, navigation, hydration and other odds and ends.

The race welcome party hosted by Port Dalrymple Yacht Club went well last night with Alastair, West Tamar Mayor Barry Easter, sponsors Lance Balcon and Alison Turnure from Hydro and Tasports and PDYC commodore Peter Haworth opening the event.
PDYC produced some wonderful catering with the young club members making excellent waiters/waitresses.
A lovely "last supper" was then enjoyed at Tamar Cove.