MORE than 600 made it to the finish in the fifth annual Coniston Chillswim on Saturday.

With calm and sunny weather, only the morning mist delayed the first start group from taking to Coniston Water.

Logistics involved in hosting a linear length of lake swim for this many swimmers is a big operation, with 100 support kayakers, 16 power boats, four ‘feed station boats’, 12 buoys marking the course, two ambulances on standby, 20 medical crew, 50 volunteers, nine buses supplied by Mountain Goat to shuttle swimmers to the start and from the finish, with John Ruskin School hired for the event hub.

The slower swimmers take just over five hours to complete the 5.25 mile swim and set off before 08:00, then further groups of swimmers going off according to their average mile pace, until the faster swimmers who take under two hours to complete the course set off.

Swimmers came from far and wide to take part, with teams from Jersey and Cornwall all coming to spend the weekend in the Lake District, while many bring family and friends.

Swimmers decide if they want to wear a wetsuit or not and prizes are split into two categories (as a wetsuit does make the swimmer faster), with the water temp 17.7 degrees C.

The fastest male swimmer was Sean Wylie (20) from Hexham, now studying and training in Loughborough, in 1:47.50. Ulverston's elite open water swimmer Tom Robinson (U19 class) was just behind him in 1 hour 48 minutes.

Chloe Cottam, from Lancashire, led the women’s event in a time of 1 hour 49 mins to finish third overall, with Caitlin Poulson of Penrith just behind in 1 hour 49.55 sec.

Special thanks to the team at Coniston Boating Centre, Lake District National Park and Rawdon Smith Trust for location support and title sponsor Arena Swimwear.