1979 Fastnet Race

[isla]

I would just like to remind forumites that tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the ill-fated 1979 Fastnet race, in which 15 yachtsmen lost their lives. I'll be raising a glass of Scotch in memory of those who died.

[gavinpascoe]

When I was in England I sailed with a guy that survived that race. The boat he was on sunk. Sounded awful.

[obscured by clouds]

When I was in England I sailed with a guy that survived that race. The boat he was on sunk. Sounded awful.


It truly was. We were so far behind in our old boat in appalling weather the first we heard about what was happening up ahead was on the BBC news.

We'd already had a 'breaking' time off the Lizard so we invoked the 5 minute rule and dived into Newlyn for the rest of the week. A constant stream of battered and injured yachts came in over the next couple of days, and we encountered more on our way back home via Milford Haven - a good days run downwind of where the carnage took place.

never did do the race afterwards, never wanted to.

[rbgarr]

A hundred years ago on this date a gale lashed a NYYC race from Martha's Vineyard to Portland, Maine. Mustn't fool with Mother Nature.

[isla]

This eyewitness account (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/august/14/newsid_3541000/3541260.stm) from Matthew Sheahan is quite shocking, and has probably detailed the conditions better than any other account that I have read.

I was not in the race, but late on the 12th August my wife and I left Cobh in southern Ireland in our 26ft GRP sloop heading for our home port of Holyhead in North Wales. On the 13th it kicked up really rough so we ran across to Cardigan Bay and into Aberystwyth. Later that day several other boats came in, saying that conditions out there were hellish. 303 yachts started the race in fine weather, but only 85 yachts finished the race and 15 people were killed.

[Peerie Maa]

An incredibly lucky guy. Some who abandoned their boats did not survive, whilst the boat they left was later found afloat and towed to port.