
Ken and Pete's Three Lakes Dinghy Sailing Challenge for Oakhaven - Yodare 2024!
Ken Fowler and Peter Barton have challenged themselves to a unique fundraiser - sailing a Three Lakes Challenge!
Starting on Monday 1st July 2024, the duo sailed double the length of Loch Awe in Scotland (25 miles long), Lake Windermere (10.5 miles long) and Llyn Tegid in Wales, 3.5 miles long - to raise funds for Oakhaven Hospice and Cancer Research UK.
The Three Lakes Challenge
Over the last seven years, Ken Fowler has sailed an adventure on an 'epic scale' to raise an incredible amount of money for Oakhaven Hospice and Cancer Research UK. As far as Ken is aware, this 'micro-adventure' has never been done before - and it is possibly accessible to all, so they hope to inspire others to follow in their wake!
Ken explains the challenge...
"To be honest the idea originated from a challenge in another sport, climbing (not necessarily one you would link to sailing!). The Three Peaks Challenge has always intrigued me, the aim is to try and climb the three highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales within a 24-hour window. Now, clearly as light as Yoda is, it would be a near impossible (and stupid) task to try and get my beloved dinghy to the top of these three peaks, so what could the sailing equivalent be?
We discovered the Three Lakes Challenge undertaken by canoeists where the aim is to canoe the three longest lakes in England, Scotland and Wales. No one appeared to have ever attempted this in a dinghy, so we now had the bare bones of the challenge!"
A challenge for two sailors
"Previous Yodare challenges have been solo adventures, supported by fantastic people on the shore, but for this adventure I really wanted someone to share my experiences.
So step forward the second sailor in this adventure - Peter Barton. Peter is a world champion sailor in the RS Aero and his support throughout all my adventures has been constant and amazing. Having lost both his parents to cancer he totally understands why we keep undertaking taking these fundraising challenges and was keen to participate.
With two sailors involved, we decided we’d double the challenge by sailing a return journey along the length of each lake, swapping over at the halfway point. The only problem with doubling the sailing distance of this adventure up to 130km makes doing it as a non-stop challenge in 24 hours near impossible. So rather than putting pressure on specific timings we’ve decided to just try and complete it non-stop and see how quickly we can complete it (although our target is sub 36 hours)."
Follow Ken and Pete's adventure
Ken and Pete started their epic 2024 Yodare Three Lakes Challenge on Monday 1st July 2024 at Loch Awe in Scotland which is 25 miles (41km) long. followed by Lake Windermere - at 10.5 miles (18km) long, England's largest lake. The final leg is Llyn Tegid in Wales, 3.5 miles (6km) long.
You can follow their adventures on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/goyodare) and on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/goyodare) Find out more at: https://yodare.co.uk
Click the link below to support Ken and Pete in fundraising for Oakhaven Hospice on their JustGiving page...
