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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
The Fastnet Race of 1979, over the classic course from Cowes round the Fastnet Rock and back to Plymouth, proved to be the most disastrous in the history of the race, or indeed of ocean racing itself. A storm of exceptional violence, of which the meteorological analysis by itself has provided an inadequate explanation, decimated the fleet causing the loss of 15 lives and the abandonment of many boats. The Royal Ocean Racing Club, which organizes the race, has (with the RYA) issued its own report and the progress of the weather pattern over those fateful days has by now become familiar. In this article Adlard Coles, a highly experienced small-boat seaman (and Institute Gold Medallist), author of Heavy Weather Sailing describes the chaos wrought by the unusually violent and steep seas and attempts to draw conclusions from his own investigation of the affair.