The Loss of Morning Cloud

Abstract

On the night of 2 September 1974 Morning Cloud, a 45-ft. ocean racer belonging to the Rt. Hon. Edward Heath, was sunk in a severe south-westerly gale off the south coast of England. The boat was on passage from the east coast to the Solent with an amateur crew for the passage, two members of which lost their lives. Here K. Adlard Coles, a Gold Medallist of the Institute and author of the classic work Heavy Weather Sailing, describes the circumstances in which the disaster occurred as told to him by Don Blewett, who was skippering the boat at the time. Don Blewett's own account appears in Seahorse (Jan./Feb. 1975) the magazine of the Royal Ocean Racing Club.