In the words of his first biographer, J.R.L. Anderson, Bill
Tilman "contrived to live a life on a physical scale
unmatched by anyone in this century." At the age of 18, he
became an officer in the trenches in World War I, and fought
through the bloody Battle of the Somme. In World War II, he
survived Dunkirk and El Alamein, then parachuted behind enemy
lines and fought with the Albanian partisans.
After trying his hand at farming in Kenya in the 1920s, Tilman had been at the forefront of Himalayan exploration and climbing in the 1930s and led the 1938 Everest expedition.
In 1954 he bought an old, Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter
named Mischief and sailed 114,000 miles, exploring in the
high latitudes until 1968 when she was lost off Jan Mayen
Island, far north of the Arctic Circle.
In the following
decade he bought two more old cutters and visited Greenland
or the Arctic islands on nine successive summers.
He was close to 80 years of age when he made his last
voyage to Smith Island south of Cape Horn in 1977.
He had
accepted the position of navigator on the converted, steel-
hulled tug En Avant, which disappeared off the Falkland
Islands without a trace. He was very much the Victorian
gentleman-adventurer, the last of his kind.
Tilman's independant voyages were a new departure in the yachting world, combining cruising and mountaineering in the most hostile conditions on earth. He wrote seven books on climbing and eight on sailing. I joined his 1971 voyage to Greenland and have been inspired by his combination of sailing and climbing ever since.
The Three Peaks Race No one involved denies that this is not a "truly British" sporting event - something entirely different that you might think had been inspired by a Monty Python sketch.
Apparently, it began like the more famous Singlehanded
Trans-Atlantic with a casual challenge over a beer. In 1972,
a couple of Welsh sailors were discussing their local sailing
legend, Major H.W.Tilman, at the bar of the Merioneth Sailing
Club. Dr Robert Haworth was explaining to his partner, Dr
Merfyn Jones, his idea for a challenging summer cruise that
wouldn't involve sailing half-way around the world, as
Tilman's often did.
Haworth wanted to cruise the Irish Sea with his family and climb the highest peaks in Wales, England and Scotland along the route. Jones responded that they should make a race of it - and the Three Peaks Race was born. The first running in 1977 coincided with the Queen's Jubilee celebrations marking 25 years on the throne and 22 boats showed up.
Right from the start, the Three Peaks was a truly amateur event with very few rules, offering everyone the chance of a real adventure within home waters. Tilman willingly agreed to be the race's patron and often met with the race committee. His Spartan attitude was reflected in the race rules which allowed any form of human power.It wasn't long before the multihulls began getting into the act, while the monohulls responded with human-powered proulsion systems, ranging from giant oars to sophisticated pedalling systems. The crews began to recruit champion sailors, oarsmen and hill runners. This insanity spread to Australia in in 1987 and threatens to spring up in Scandinavia and anywhere else where the sea and mountains meet.
The overall distance is 389 miles, which includes some of the most intricate navigation included a passage through a rock-lined tide rip between Anglesey and Wales for the Welsh stop, through sandbanks for the English stop and around the wind-swept isles of Scotland for the last leg. The climbs average a marathon (26 miles) in length, 3-4,000' elevation gain and take around three hours round-trip. The record is a phenomenal 2 days: 8 hours.
