Three Rivers Race

This could be a bit of a rant due to massive disappointment at the weekend.

The Three Rivers' Race is a famous annual 24 hour endurance race on the Norfolk Broads and for the last 13 or so years we have had a perfect vantage point on our moorings to watch the yachts, big and small, coming down on to the broad, sometimes under very difficult and interesting sailing conditions.

The race starts and ends in Horning and has to visit the Rivers Ant, Bure and Thurne, being checked off at specially placed marker buoys, which the yachts have to circumnavigate.

We start looking forward to the race at the beginning of the season and follow the plans and discussions amongst the sailors (open forum) with great interest. Tactics are discussed, based on tide and wind conditions and 'red herrings' put out all over the place. Deciding which river to tackle first can make the difference between winning and actually managing to finish the race!

This year we organised ourselves to be set up in our vantage point, cameras at the ready, wine chilling, snacks made but by 12 noon there was still no marker buoy on the broad! The race starts at 11.00 at 5 minute intervals (139 yachts this year) and we would expect the first fast boat to reach our broad by around 12.30. To cut a long story short, we eventually discovered that a last minute decision had been taken to have the turning point down the long and twisting dyke which leads to the broad and not to visit the broad itself! We were gutted, as were many other people who had turned up specially to view the spectacle.

Our neighbours on the mooring were heading down the river in their yacht (under power I hasten to add!) and offered us a lift which made us feel a bit better but it was still very disappointing after all the anticipation. Consequently, we were unable to get very many photographs.

Apologies to anyone who reads this, for the rant, but I needed to get it off my chest!