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Dozens of yachts retire from Channel race due to ‘brutal’ gale-force winds

One crew evacuated before boat sinks as more than 80 vessels abandon world’s largest offshore race

Dozens of yachts have been forced to retire from the world’s largest offshore race due to “brutal” gale-force conditions in the Channel, with other vessels forced to seek shelter and one believed to have sunk.

Strong winds and torrential rain affected the 50th edition of the Rolex Fastnet race, which has been organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club since 1925 and takes place every two years. This year’s event set a new record of 430 yachts, surpassing the 388 that took part in 2019.

But organisers said about 86 had retired after a “brutal” first night of the 600-mile race. Competitors set off from Cowes on the Isle of Wight on Saturday heading for the finishing line in Cherbourg, north-west France, via the Fastnet Rock off Ireland.

One yacht, the Sun Fast 3600 Vari, sank off the Isle of Wight and its crew are said to be safe and well. In a statement, the Rolex Fastnet race committee said: “At approximately 16.30 yesterday afternoon the Sun Fast 3600 Vari began to take on water south-west of the Needles.

“Thanks to the swift response of the emergency services both crew members were evacuated to Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, and are safe and well. The boat is believed to have sunk although the exact reasons are not yet confirmed.”

HM Coastguard reported involvement in 28 incidents, some involving injured crew. The race director, Steve Cole, told the BBC: “The strong winds last night were forecast well in advance.

“The club would like to thank HM Coastguard and the RNLI for their assistance. It is thanks to their effort and skill that the incidents were dealt with professionally and those who required assistance were recovered safely.

“Now the front has passed, the wind and sea state have dropped, and conditions are even set to be light over the next 24 hours.”

The race’s official blog reported that the crew on Stuart Lawrence’s J/120 Scream II reported wind speeds of 46 knots on Saturday evening.

Poole lifeboat station said it had attended yachts encountering problems on Saturday evening in “lively” conditions during “relentless heavy rain”.

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An RNLI volunteer helm, Jonathan Clark, said: “With the challenging conditions out there tonight, RNLI lifeboats from Yarmouth, Swanage and Weymouth are being kept very busy helping to keep people safe and there are a lot of vessels in Poole tonight seeking safe haven.”

Boats of all ages, shapes and sizes participate in the historic race, which attracts amateurs and professionals.

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Published on July 24th, 2023 | by Editor

Brutal conditions for record-setting Fastnet Race

Published on July 24th, 2023 by Editor -->

The 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race set sail with 430 yachts on July 22 – up from the previous record of 388 that took the last pre-COVID race in 2019.

While pundits were comparing the wind for the 50th edition to that of the last Rolex Fastnet Race in 2021, in fact it was gustier with a densely overcast sky, drizzle that built to rain, and enough mist to obscure the mainland.

However, what was consistent was the heinous washing machine sea-state that competitors encountered at the western exit of the Solent at Hurst Narrows, as they passed the Isle of Wight’s most famous landmark, the Needles and beyond. As usual this built increasingly with the ebb tide, especially affecting the smaller yachts.

It was a brutal first night at sea with numerous retirements and many others seeking temporary shelter from the gale force conditions in the English Channel.

By the first morning, 86 had officially retired, comprising 78 across the IRC fleet (the biggest number being 27 in IRC Two) plus two Class40s, two IMOCAs, three MOCRA multihulls and one Ocean 50 trimaran.

In the severe conditions, HM Coastguard reported involvement in 28 incidents, including one sinking. Said the event statement, “At approximately 16:30 yesterday afternoon the Sun Fast 3600 Vari began to take on water southwest of the Needles. Thanks to the swift response of the emergency services both crew members were evacuated to Yarmouth, Isle of Wight and are safe and well. The boat is believed to have sunk although the exact reasons are not yet confirmed.”

Several calls to HM Coastguard were to do with injured crew. Otherwise, four yachts dismasted – Heather Tarr’s Yoyo from Ireland; Nick Martin’s Diablo; Bertrand Daniels’ Mirabelle and Tapio Lehtinen’s Swan 55 yawl Galiana (due to compete in the Ocean Globe Race shortly).

In addition, Azora sustained broken steering, Dulcissima a loss of rigging, while Richard Matthews’ CF520 Oystercatcher XXXV sustained deck failure and Oida ran aground after her anchor dragged.

There were several other incidents in which HM Coastguard was not involved, including the mast foot exploding on Long Courrier who retired to Cowes – the only occasion race veteran and 2015 winner Géry Trentesaux has retired from this race.

Fifteen registered entries didn’t start, including one of the race favorites – Peter Morton’s Maxi 72 Notorious in IRC Super Zero.

Good news did arrive on day two as after a tough first 24 hours, conditions had abated in the English Channel and Celtic Sea. Between Land’s End and the Scilly Isles, there were reports of 17 knots from 250°, dropping to 15 for the second night, with the wind in the western English Channel typically 10-15 knots.

But well ahead of that was François Gabart and his team on the 100-foot SVR Lazartigue as they crossed the finish line at 21:38:27 BST on July 23, setting a new record of 1 day 8 hours 38 minutes 27 seconds, breaking the time set by Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier on Maxi Groupe Edmond de Rothschild two years ago by 36 minutes 27 seconds.

The 32m long by 23m wide, foil-borne, flying Ultim trimarans are by far the biggest, fastest offshore race boats on the planet, with the gale force winds making little impression

“It is never easy to leave the Solent and doing it in an Ultim is even more difficult,” admitted Gabart. “Doing it with 400 boats around you is harder still. And if you do it upwind…in 25 knots…! It is not easy! We were happy to make it out of the Solent. I think if there had been more than 30 knots at Hurst, we wouldn’t have done it. After that the waves were strong, but we could still race and in the end, we broke nothing.”

Event information – Entry list – Facebook

A record-sized fleet got underway for the 50th edition of Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Rolex Fastnet Race from Cowes on July 22, 2023. For a second consecutive occasion, the course departed from the UK but has a French finish in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin via a 695 nautical mile course via the Fastnet Rock.

Tags: Fastnet Race , François Gabart , records

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1979 Fastnet Race: The race that changed everything

• Nic Compton
• May 18, 2022

Nic Compton investigates how the UK’s worst sailing disaster - the 1979 Fastnet Race - changed the way yachts are designed

The Royal Navy airlifted 74 survivors during three days of rescues. Credit: Getty

‘A soul-chilling surge of fear swept through all of us as we heard the terrifying sound of a breaking wave 40ft above us. In a few seconds the 10ft-high foaming crest was bearing down on us from behind like an avalanche. […] We braced ourselves for the pooping of our lives, but a split second before the onslaught from astern, the bow disappeared as we nosedived into a wall of water in front. […] As the bow submarined into this secondary wave, Grimalkin ’s stern rose until it arced over the bow and stood us on our nose. As we approached the vertical, crew were thrown against the back of the coachroof or out of the boat altogether. A split second later and we were hit from astern by the breaking wave and we pitchpoled.’

This is one of the defining moments of the 1979 Fastnet Race when, after having been knocked down multiple times and rolled through 360°, the 30ft Grimalkin was hit by a rogue wave and pitchpoled.

As she went through the roll, her rig collapsed and she remerged with a broken mast and the spars smashing against her topsides.

By then, the boat’s owner, David Sheahan, was dead, floating face down in the sea to windward, and two of the crew were slumped in the cockpit, also apparently dead.

Rescue helicopters went back in the days after the disaster to check every boat for survivors, including Grimalkin . Credit: Getty

Faced with this carnage, the remaining three crew – including the owner’s son, Matt Sheahan, then only 17, who wrote the passage above – decided to abandon ship and boarded the liferaft .

Only later did they discover that at least one of the crew left on board was still alive – Nick Ward, who went on to tell his tale in his book Left for Dead .

But of course Grimalkin wasn’t the only yacht to have succumbed to the Force 10 winds that ravaged the fleet that year.

By the end of the 1979 Fastnet race, 24 boats had been abandoned, five boats had sunk, 136 sailors had been rescued, and 15 sailors killed.

It was and still is the deadliest yacht race in history – well ahead of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart race which left six people dead.

The rescue was described as the biggest peacetime life-saving operation in British history, and its impact has reverberated throughout the yachting world.

Stowage arrangements on yachts was one of the changes following the 1979 Fastnet Race, after many crews found it too dangerous to be below deck due to insecure equipment

It was a wake-up call for the emergency services and triggered a huge push for improved safety equipment.

But how much did it affect the course of boat design , and have the lessons of this deadliest of races really been learned, or is there a danger it could happen all over again?

When the 303 boats gathered for the Fastnet Race on 11 August 1979, racing was still governed by the International Offshore Rule (IOR), first introduced in 1969.

After 10 years of experimentation, designers had found ways of maximising the rule, not always with desirable results.

‘In 1979 all boat racing was done under IOR, but it was already in decline, mainly because designers had found their weaselly way into the rule,’ says the former Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) technical director Mike Urwin, ‘which meant that unless you had the latest and greatest you didn’t stand a chance. The IOR produced boats which wholly optimised the rule but which were opposed to the rules of nature, such as hydrodynamics.’

One of the main complaints about the IOR was that it produced boats which were ‘short on stability’, as Urwin puts it.

The 1979 Fastnet Race Inquiry looked at weather reporting, safety gear, crew experience and tactics, and search and rescue procedures.

The rule contained a Centre of Gravity Factor, which encouraged designers to aim for the minimum stability allowed, bringing ballast inside the boat and even fitting wooden shoes on the bottom of keels to reduce weight.

The result was lightweight boats with wide beams, pinched ends and high freeboards, which in extreme weather had a tendency to roll over and stay over.

Another major failing of the rule was that, as it wasn’t possible to physically weigh them yet, the boats were weighed theoretically by measuring their shape at a series of stations and calculating the overall shape accordingly.

This lead to designers adding all kinds of strange appendages between the stations to increase the waterline length, which in turn meant the hulls became distorted and difficult to steer.

It was an altogether bad state of affairs yet, speaking 40 years after the 1979 Fastnet Race, designer Ron Holland – responsible for dozens of IOR racers, including Grimalkin – defends his and his colleagues’ approach.

‘We were designing boats to the IOR rule, so it wasn’t just boat design, it was trick design. Without those restrictions we would have designed boats that were less distorted and faster, but they wouldn’t have won races under the IOR rules. The racing rule forced us to design narrow sterns, so the boats were tricky to sail downwind: you had to be skilled to stay on your feet – it was all part of the game. We just took the handicap system as it was and designed boats as fast as possible around that – still bearing in mind that if you don’t finish you can’t win and you need structural integrity to keep sailing.’

Lessons from the wreckage of the 1979 Fastnet Race

Holland experienced the storm first hand, first from the deck of Golden Apple of the Sun and then, when the boat’s rudder broke off the Isles of Scilly , from the inside of a rescue helicopter.

‘I personally felt bad afterwards, especially because of those people who died. We had never had that before. But the weather was so extreme; the waves were of a size, shape and frequency that I’ve never seen before. I’m convinced that even a Colin Archer would have rolled over in those conditions.’

As the crews licked their wounds and the families mourned their dead in the aftermath of the 1970 Fastnet race, the RYA and the RORC commissioned an inquiry to find out what had gone wrong.

Three questionnaires were sent to the skipper and crews of all 303 yachts, and 669 completed questionnaires were fed into a computer for analysis.

Yacht designer Ron Holland took part on the 1979 Fastnet. He said the waves were of a size and frequency he had never seen before. Credit: Getty

The result was a 74-page report, which looked at everything from weather reporting to marine safety gear , crew experience and tactics, and search and rescue procedures.

Yet, despite recognising that many people felt designers had ‘gone to extremes which surpass the bounds of common sense’ in their quest for speed, the section on boat design is relatively short: less than three pages out of a 74-page report.

Indeed, the authors seem to go along with the ‘consensus of opinion’ that it was ‘the severity of the conditions rather than any defect in the design of the boats’, which was the main cause of the problem – all the while noting that 48% of the fleet had been knocked to horizontal, 33% had gone beyond horizontal, and five boats had spent between 30 seconds and six minutes fully inverted.

The report didn’t bother investigating knockdowns to horizontal (so-called B1 knockdowns) because it considered that these ‘have always been a potential danger in cruising and offshore racing yachts in heavy seas’, so they regarded them as normal.

New measures

Buried in the appendices was a technical report comparing the stability of a Contessa 32 Assent – the only boat in the smallest class to complete the course – and a ‘1976 Half Tonner’ (generally assumed to be Grimalkin ).

The report showed the Contessa had a range of stability of 156° compared to just 117° for the Half Tonner, making the latter far more likely to stay inverted.

Despite these concerns, the report made few recommendations for changes in yacht design, apart from suggesting the RORC should consider changing its measurement rules and make it possible to exclude boats ‘whose design parameters may indicate a lack of stability’.

The overwhelming weight of the report, however, was about the weather, improving safety gear on boats and better procedures for search and rescue.

It concluded: ‘In the 1979 race the sea showed that it can be a deadly enemy and that those who go to sea for pleasure must do so in the full knowledge that they may encounter dangers of the highest order. However, provided that the lessons so harshly taught in this race are well learnt we feel that yachts should continue to race over the Fastnet course.’

Changes brought in after 1979 means boats have to meet the ISO 12217-2 stability standard in order to sail in the Fastnet Race. Credit: Carlo Borlenghi

Yet, despite this, racing rules did change.

From 1983, the Channel Handicap System (CHS) was introduced, initially alongside IOR and eventually, as the renamed International Rating Certificate (IRC), supplanting it.

The new rule encouraged a low centre of gravity by not penalising ballast in the keel.

Also, thanks to advances in technology, it was now possible to weigh boats which, according to Mike Urwin, ‘at a stroke’ stopped designers distorting the hull to get better rating – gone were the unseemly bumps and creases of IOR boats – and resulted in ‘more wholesome boats which were easier to handle’.

There were other changes.

From 1988, the CHS introduced a Safety & Stability Screening (SSS) system, which measured a boat’s stability and took into account factors such as rig, keel , and engine type.

Thus an inboard engine scored more highly than an outboard, and a sturdy, simple rig was favoured over the complex spiders webs of many IOR boats.

Features such as furling headsails, in-mast reefing and radar can have a big impact on a yacht’s stability. Credit: David Harding

Trisails and VHF radios became mandatory.

In due course, competitors were required to complete shorter, qualifying races before they were allowed to race in the Fastnet, and a certain percentage of the crew were expected to have a sea survival certificate.

And Urwin points to another way the 1979 Fastnet Race has improved boat safety.

When it came to devising an ISO standard for yacht construction in the UK in the 1990s, the starting point for stability was the SSS system produced by the RORC.

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The resulting ISO 12217-2 (which Urwin calls a ‘gold standard for stability’) is now not only used to qualify for RORC offshore races such as the Fastnet, but is used by most British designers to pass the EU’s Recreational Craft Directive rules.

Even more significantly, perhaps, the tragedy prompted a change of attitude, according to former ROCR race director Janet Grosvenor.

‘The 1979 Fastnet was the trigger that started a greater awareness of safety issues in sailing that exists today,’ she says.

‘You can see it in people’s ordinary lives and their perception of safety. Young people nowadays turn up with their own lifejacket , which they know fits them and is up to date, whereas before they used to all be provided by the boat. It’s a mindset. We are living in a more health and safety conscious world these days.’

The new approach came to the fore in 2007 when, for the first time in its 82-year history, the start of the race was delayed after the Met Office warned of extreme conditions in the Irish Sea, similar to 1979.

In her role as race director, Grosvenor delayed the start by 25 hours, ensuring the bulk of the fleet was still in the English Channel when the storm hit and could retire safely if necessary.

And retire they did, with 207 of the 271-strong fleet taking shelter in ports along the south coast.

For Grosvenor, the fact that no boats capsized and no lives were lost was a vindication of this new attitude.

Lasting legacy of the 1979 Fastnet Race

Matt Sheahan’s experiences during the 1979 Fastnet Race affected him for the rest of his life and sparked a personal crusade.

After studying Yacht Design at Southampton University, he worked at Proctor Masts before eventually joining Yachting World as racing editor.

In his guise as chief boat tester, he conducted a campaign to make yacht manufacturers more open about stability.

‘I was determined to include stability information with all our boat tests. I wasn’t trying to change the world or say there should be set limits, it was just about getting people to understand the issue and know what their boat is suitable for. When you sail an Ultra 30, with eight crew and minimal ballast, you know if you get it wrong you’ll be swimming and the boat will probably capsize. That’s ok, it’s a calculated risk taken by experienced sailors. What’s not acceptable is when you have a cruising family who don’t have much experience and just want a boat for weekend cruising, and you sell them a boat which is capable of capsizing if it heels beyond 100° or 105° – which is the case with many boats by the time you put all the extra bits of kit on the mast. But people aren’t aware.’

The Contessa 32, Assent , pictured taking part in Cowes Week, was the smallest boat to complete the 1979 Fastnet Race

As ever, suitability of a boat for a specific use is key.

It is important that buyers understand what a boat is suitable for and what it is not. So, are boats safer now than they were in 1979?

There’s little doubt that the advances in safety equipment, clothing and building materials have improved sailors’ chances of survival in extreme weather conditions.

And there are signs that designers are producing more seaworthy designs than before.

Conditions in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race were said to be at least as bad as in the 1979 Fastnet Race, yet only 18% of the 115 boats in the race had B1 knockdowns and only 3% had B2 knockdowns – compared to 48% and 33% in the Fastnet.

Heed the warnings

But Sheahan is cautious: ‘What worries me is that the lessons from the 1979 Fastnet get forgotten. Most yachts have better stability characteristics now, partly because of regulations but also because they are generally getting bigger, so they have more form stability anyway. But by the time you add in mast-furling , furling staysails, and all the other bits of kit on the mast, the centre of gravity starts to creep up and you have a problem again. There’s a trend to make cruising boats look like fancy hotel foyers down below, to make them more appealing to the family. But the minute the boat heels over, it’s a nightmare to get across. With nothing to hold onto, someone’s going to get hurt. There’s also a move towards fine bows and over-wide sterns, making boats harder to steer downwind. So stability might be better, but the handling is getting worse.’

Urwin also thinks we are far from immune from a repeat of 1979.

The subsequent inquiry into the 1979 Fastnet Race recommended that blocking arrangements on main companionways should be totally secure

‘With the best will in the world we can’t forecast exactly what weather is going to do. If it happens again, modern boats are less likely to get into trouble, and if they do get into trouble the safety equipment is much better. We have by various means, some directly related to the 1979 Fastnet, improved the design of boats so they are more seaworthy. But never say never. With climate change creating extreme weather, it could happen again.’

The truth is that boat design is always going to be a compromise between speed and safety and that no boat is guaranteed to survive all weather conditions.

And one thing that becomes clear from all the first-hand accounts of the 1979 Fastnet Race is that the conditions were beyond anything competitors had encountered before.

Today’s sailors would do well not to assume that modern boats could survive any better than those flawed boats of 40 years ago.

As Ron Holland puts it: ‘If a fleet of boats racing on the Solent was hit by that Fastnet storm, they would still find it difficult to steer and the result wouldn’t be that different. I’ve done a lot of miles at sea but I’ve never seen conditions like that.’

Sailors take heed.

Stability research after the 1979 Fastnet Race

The Contessa 32 was used in the research into the causes of knockdowns after the 1979 race Credit: Graham Snook/Yachting Monthly

The Fastnet disaster prompted the Wolfson Unit at Southampton University to undertake detailed research into the causes of B1 (90°) and B2 (full inversion) knockdowns.

Its conclusions were striking.

•  yacht with a stability range of 150° or more, like a Contessa 32 (pictured), will not remain inverted after capsize, as the wave motion alone is enough to bring it back up.
• If the wave height is 60% or more than the length of the boat, then capsize is almost inevitable, therefore, smaller yachts are more liable to be capsized than bigger ones.
• The Wolfson Unit also found that a yacht which has a stability range of 127° when fitted with conventional sails drops to an alarming 96° when fitted with in-mast mainsail and roller-furling genoa.

Yacht construction

The 1979 Fastnet Inquiry also highlighted several ‘weaknesses’ in relation to yacht construction.

Steering gear

Many rudders failed during the race due to the weakness of the carbon fibre used in the construction.

The report authors highlighted that although emergency steering would only give ‘minimum directional control’ it was important it would work to get a yacht safely to harbour.

Watertight Integrity

The design and construction of main companionways was ‘the most serious defect’ affecting watertight integrity.

The inquiry recommended that blocking arrangements should be totally secure but openable from above and below decks.

Bilge pumps should also discharge overboard and not into the cockpit, unless the cockpit is open-ended.

Many of the crews found it too dangerous below decks as their yachts rolled due to insecure equipment, like batteries, becoming flying ‘missiles’.

The stowage arrangements in some boats were designed to be effective only up to 90° angle of heel.

Deck Arrangements

The inquiry found cockpit drainage arrangement in some of the boats was ‘inadequate’, and called for a requirement for cockpits to drain within a minimum time.

The report also highlighted the problems with yachts under tow, and recommended a requirement for a strong securing point on the foredeck and a bow fairlead for anchor cable and towing warp.

The report also called for adequate toe-rails to be fitted, especially forward of the mast.

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Legendary Fastnet yacht race in chaos as brutal 12ft waves and 46mph gales sink £130,000 vessel and spark multiple rescue missions

• Rolex Fastnet Race off Isle of Wight saw 142 of 430 yachts retire in bad weather
• One boat sank, four lost their masts and 30 were rescued by emergency services

By Oliver Price

Published: 12:38 EDT, 25 July 2023 | Updated: 14:48 EDT, 26 July 2023

View comments

A famous yacht race was left in chaos after brutal 12ft waves and 46mph led to a £130,000 boat sinking and sparked multiple rescue missions, raising questions as to why it was allowed to start.

A staggering 142 yachts out of 430 have had to retire from the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race which started at the weekend in horrendous conditions which meant multiple rescues were done by overworked lifeboat and coastguard crews.

The brutal conditions caused one yacht to sink, while four lost their masts and almost 30 had to be rescued or assisted by emergency services and the RNLI.

Two stranded and injured sailors were rescued from their life raft by the Yarmouth RNLI lifeboat after their £130,000 yacht sunk west of The Needles on the Isle of Wight.

Another sailor suffered a serious head injury when he was struck by a beam and knocked overboard before being rescued by his crew mates.

A staggering 142 yachts out of 430 have had to retire from the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race which started at the weekend in 46mph winds and 12ft waves (a yacht pictured sailing at the Rolex Fastnet Race)

Brutal weather conditions at the start of the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race where winds reached 46mph and waves were 12ft high

The brutal conditions resulted in one yacht to sink, while four lost their masts and almost 30 had to be rescued or assisted by the emergency services and the RNLI

A coastguard helicopter winchman made repeated attempts to land on the vessel in order to evacuate the casualty but was prevented by the strong winds and the heavy sea swell.

The Swanage RNLI lifeboat arrived on the scene and two volunteers jumped onto the yacht to assess the man, who was drifting in and out of consciousness.

The yacht was guided into calmer waters before the casualty could be stretchered off and taken back to land where an ambulance was waiting.

The Swanage lifeboat also came to the rescue of another yacht whose steering had failed, causing them to lose control in gale force winds.

The carnage also saw multiple 'man overboard' beacons wash into the sea, resulting in some of them activating triggering lifeboat searches.

The multiple incidents involved the use of two coastguard helicopters, lifeboats crews from Yarmouth, Poole, Swanage and Weymouth and coastguard crews from Wyke Regis and Portland.

Howard Lester, Yarmouth RNLI coxswain said: 'This weekend's Fastnet race was the busiest one for Yarmouth lifeboat, responding to six incidents in some very challenging conditions.'

The famous race, being held for the 50th time, sees competitors race 600 miles from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, the spiritual home of British yachting, to Cherbourg, France, via the Fastnet Rock off the southern tip of Ireland.

The event started on Saturday afternoon and is due to finish on Friday.

The race experienced tragedy in 1979 when 18 people - 15 yachtsmen and three rescuers - were killed in horrific conditions which saw five yachts sink.

Although there have been no fatalities since people took to social media to raise concerns about it going ahead.

Some people have called on the event organisers to make a donation to the lifeboat and coastguard crews who came to the competitors' aid while others questioned if it should have started in the first place.

James Churchill said: 'I hope the operators of the race make a significant donation.'

Damian Lockie said: 'Complete madness that the race was even started in such conditions and with the forecast.'

Two stranded and injured sailors were rescued from their life raft by the Yarmouth RNLI lifeboat after their £130,000 yacht sunk west of The Needles on the Isle of Wight

RNLI teams working to rescue a yacht at its seamen during the Rolex Fastnet Race

Some people have called on the event organisers to make a donation to the lifeboat and coastguard crews who came to the competitors' aid while others questioned if it should have started in the first place (RNLI pictured rescuing stranded racers)

Hilary Drewer-Trump added: 'Well done to everyone involved on rescues in very challenging and dangerous conditions.

'Why did the race even start in those conditions?'

But the organisers today defended the decision to go ahead with racing. They said conditions had markedly improved since the first day of the competition.

In fact, they say a lack of wind is now hampering competitors as they approach the Fastnet rock.

Race director Steve Cole told Yachting Monthly they considered postponing the event but decided to go ahead as the expected bad weather

across the seven days was for when the boats would have been close to the English coast, where there are places to shelter.

He said: 'The strong winds were forecast well in advance.

'The club would like to thank HM Coastguard and the RNLI for their assistance.

'It is thanks to their effort and skill that the incidents were dealt with professionally and those who required assistance were recovered safely.

'Now the front has passed the wind and sea state have dropped.'

Share or comment on this article: Legendary Fastnet yacht race in chaos as brutal 12ft waves and 46mph gales sink £130,000 vessel and spark multiple rescue missions

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Russia’s damaged Black Sea flagship sinks in latest setback

FILE - A Russian sailor salutes on the bow of Missile Cruiser Moskva, left, as crew of Russian patrol ship Pitliviy, right, prepare to moor the vessel, in Sevastopol, Crimea, March 30, 2014. The Moskva was built in Ukraine during the Soviet era and now is the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in its war with Ukraine. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows cruiser Moskva in port Sevastopol in Crimea on April 7, 2022. (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies via AP)

FILE - The Russian missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is seen anchored in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, on Sept. 11, 2008. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the ship was damaged Wednesday, April 13, 2022, but not that it was hit by Ukraine. The Ministry says ammunition on board detonated as a result of a fire whose causes “were being established,” and the Moskva’s entire crew was evacuated.(AP Photo, File)

A woman looks as Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) servicemen enter a building during an operation to arrest suspected Russian collaborators in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Rifles and an axe lay in a field where Ukrainian soldiers dig a trench in case of another Russian invasion, in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday April 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) servicemen enter a building during an operation to arrest suspected Russian collaborators in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

A cemetery worker carries a cross for the tomb of Tetyana Gramushnyak, 75, who was killed by shelling on March 19 while cooking food outside her home in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday April 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Cemetery workers during the funeral of Tetyana Gramushnyak, 75, killed by shelling on March 19 while cooking food outside her home in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday April 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Volunteers carry the body of a man killed during the war to a refrigerated container in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday April 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

The tail of a missile in a yard of a residential area in a village of Senkivka, near the Belarus border, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, Thursday, April 14, 2022. The fluid nature of the conflict, which has seen fighting shift away from areas around the capital and heavily toward Ukraine’s east, has made the task of reaching hungry Ukrainians especially difficult. (AP Photo/George Ivanchenko)

A woman looks for goods dropped from the apartment building partly damaged by shelling, in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Thursday, April 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)

People look at a crater of an explosion in a village of Horodnya, Chernihiv region, Ukraine, Thursday, April 14, 2022. The fluid nature of the conflict, which has seen fighting shift away from areas around the capital and heavily toward Ukraine’s east, has made the task of reaching hungry Ukrainians especially difficult. (AP Photo/George Ivanchenko)

A cemetery worker takes a rest from working on the graves of civilians killed in Bucha during the war with Russia, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday April 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) serviceman plays with a cat during an operation to arrest suspected Russian collaborators in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Women wait at a bus station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Thursday, April 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, a guided-missile cruiser that became a potent target of Ukrainian defiance in the opening days of the war, sank Thursday after it was heavily damaged in the latest setback for Moscow’s invasion.

Ukrainian officials said their forces hit the vessel with missiles, while Russia acknowledged a fire aboard the Moskva but no attack. U.S. and other Western officials could not confirm what caused the blaze.

The loss of the warship named for the Russian capital is a devastating symbolic defeat for Moscow as its troops regroup for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine after retreating from much of the north, including the capital, Kyiv.

In his nightly video address to the nation, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alluded to the sinking as he told Ukrainians they should be proud of having survived 50 days under attack when the Russians “gave us a maximum of five.”

Listing the many ways Ukraine has defended against the invasion, he noted “those who showed that Russian warships can sail away, even if it’s to the bottom” of the sea. It was his only reference to the missile cruiser.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the ship sank in a storm while being towed to a port. Russia earlier said the flames on the ship, which would typically have 500 sailors aboard, forced the entire crew to evacuate. Later it said the blaze had been contained.

The Moskva had the capacity to carry 16 long-range cruise missiles, and its removal reduces Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea. It’s also a blow to Moscow’s prestige in a war already widely seen as a historic blunder . Now entering its eighth week, the invasion has stalled amid resistance from Ukrainian fighters bolstered by weapons and other aid sent by Western nations.

During the first days of the war, the Moskva was reportedly the ship that called on Ukrainian soldiers stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea to surrender in a standoff. In a widely circulated recording, a soldier responded: “Russian warship, go (expletive) yourself.”

The Associated Press could not independently verify the incident, but Ukraine and its supporters consider it an iconic moment of defiance. The country recently unveiled a postage stamp commemorating it.

The news of the flagship overshadowed Russian claims of advances in the southern port city of Mariupol, where Moscow’s forces have been battling the Ukrainians since the early days of the invasion in some of the heaviest fighting of the war — at a horrific cost to civilians .

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Wednesday that 1,026 Ukrainian troops surrendered at a metals factory in the city. But Vadym Denysenko, adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, rejected the claim, telling Current Time TV that “the battle over the seaport is still ongoing today.”

It was unclear how many forces were still defending Mariupol.

Russian state television broadcast footage that it said was from Mariupol showing dozens of men in camouflage walking with their hands up and carrying others on stretchers. One man held a white flag.

Mariupol has been the scene of the some the war’s worst suffering. Dwindling numbers of Ukrainian defenders are holding out against a siege that has trapped well over 100,000 civilians in desperate need of food, water and heating. David Beasley, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, told AP in an interview Thursday that people are being “starved to death” in the besieged city.

Mariupol’s mayor said this week that more than 10,000 civilians had died and the death toll could surpass 20,000, after weeks of attacks and privation left bodies “carpeted through the streets.”

Mariupol’s capture is critical for Russia because it would allow its forces in the south, which came up through the annexed Crimean Peninsula, to fully link up with troops in the Donbas region, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland and the target of the coming offensive.

The Russian military continues to move helicopters and other equipment together for such an effort, according to a senior U.S. defense official, and it will likely add more ground combat units “over coming days.” But it’s still unclear when Russia could launch a bigger offensive in the Donbas.

Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukraine in the Donbas since 2014, the same year Russia seized Crimea. Russia has recognized the independence of the rebel regions in the Donbas.

The loss of the Moskva could delay any new, wide-ranging offensive.

Maksym Marchenko, the governor of the Odesa region, across the Black Sea to the northwest of Sevastopol, said the Ukrainians struck the ship with two Neptune missiles and caused “serious damage.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said ammunition on board detonated as a result of a fire, without saying what caused the blaze. It said the “main missile weapons” were not damaged. In addition to the cruise missiles, the warship also had air-defense missiles and other guns.

The Neptune is an anti-ship missile that was recently developed by Ukraine and based on an earlier Soviet design. The launchers are mounted on trucks stationed near the coast, and, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, the missiles can hit targets up to 280 kilometers (175 miles) away. That would have put the Moskva within range, based on where it was when the fire began.

Launched as the Slava in 1979, the cruiser saw service in the Cold War and during conflicts in Georgia and Syria, and helped conduct peacetime scientific research with the United States. During the Cold War, it carried nuclear weapons.

In 1989, the Slava was supposed to host a meeting off Malta between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President George H.W. Bush, but gale-force winds moved the talks to the docked cruiser Maxim Gorky.

On Thursday, other Russian ships that were also in the northern Black Sea moved further south after the Moskva caught fire, said a senior U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal military assessments.

Before the Moskva sank, Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, told AP its removal would mean “we can only have a sigh of relief.”

While the U.S. was not able to confirm Ukraine’s claims of striking the warship, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan called it “a big blow to Russia.”

“They’ve had to kind of choose between two stories: One story is that it was just incompetence, and the other was that they came under attack, and neither is a particularly good outcome for them,” Sullivan told the Economic Club of Washington.

Russia invaded on Feb. 24 and has lost potentially thousands of fighters. The conflict has killed untold numbers of Ukrainian civilians and forced millions more to flee.

It has also further inflated prices at grocery stores and gasoline pumps, while dragging on the global economy. The head of the International Monetary Fund said Thursday that the war helped push the organization to downgrade economic forecasts for 143 countries.

Also Thursday, Russian authorities accused Ukraine of sending two low-flying military helicopters some 11 kilometers (7 miles) across the border and firing on residential buildings in the village of Klimovo, in Russia’s Bryansk region. Russia’s Investigative Committee said seven people, including a toddler, were wounded.

Russia’s state security service had earlier said Ukrainian forces fired mortar rounds at a border post in Bryansk as refugees were crossing, forcing them to flee.

The reports could not be independently verified. Earlier this month, Ukrainian security officials denied that Kyiv was behind an air strike on an oil depot in the Russian city of Belgorod, some 55 kilometers (35 miles) from the border.

Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Yachting World

• Digital Edition

Fastnet Race 1979: Life and death decision – Matthew Sheahan’s story

• Matthew Sheahan
• July 12, 2019

In 1979 Matthew Sheahan, aged 17, was racing his father’s yacht Grimalkin in the Fastnet Race. After being rolled, pitchpoled, battered and half drowned, and believing the rest of the crew to be dead, he and two others had to make a crucial decision

The helicopter crew leave Grimalkin after cutting the mast and rigging free. Photo: A Besley / Royal Navy

During what turned out to be the wildest and most destructive night in yacht racing history, our six-man crew aboard Grimalkin , a 30ft Nicholson half tonner, saw conditions deteriorate rapidly as we headed out across the Celtic Sea on our way to the Fastnet Rock.

Aboard were my father, David Sheahan, Gerry Winks, Mike Doyle, Nick Ward, Dave Wheeler and myself. All had experience of offshore racing, all had raced together aboard Grimalkin for most of the season through a variety of what we thought were testing conditions, yet none of us had any idea how far we would be pressed during the next few hours.

My father and I on Grimalkin ‘s first offshore race to Cherbourg after taking delivery of her in the autumn of 1978. Photo: Matthew Sheahan

The first knockdown was a shock to the system, a one-off, an extreme incident that, like lightning striking twice, was impossible to imagine happening again. But when it did, time after time, it was clear that our focus had changed from racing to survival.

As we careered down the perilously steep face of a yet another mountainous wave it was clear this was going to be a big one – at best a terrifying white knuckle ride, at worst the end of our night. Within a few seconds our boat speed leapt from a lethargic amble in the trough of the wave to a thundering plane as the wave pitched us head first into the invisible trough 40-60ft below.

Running down what felt like a vertical wave under bare poles in the dark while trailing multiple warps, there was nothing we could do to slow down. As the log wound itself up like the rev counter on an engine that has just been floored, a pair of huge white bow waves arced out from each side, providing a V-shaped wall of water ahead.

The continual howl of the storm was deafening, but the rumble and hiss generated by this outrageous burst of speed rose above the background. A soul-chilling surge of fear swept through all of us as we heard the terrifying sound of a breaking wave 40ft above us.

Grimalkin was a Nicholson half tonner, designed by Ron Holland and built by Camper & Nicholsons. Photo: Beken of Cowes

In just a few seconds the 10ft high foaming crest was bearing down on us from behind like an avalanche. We dared not look back. There was no escape.

As time slowed down before the inevitable crash, the most terrifying aspect of our predicament was the realisation that we had no more options. There was simply nowhere to go.

Any attempt to steer along the face of the wave was futile and would have meant a knockdown and tonnes of foaming water cascading onto the boat.

Having been knocked down repeatedly and the crew thrown into the water, we’d already been there several times during the night.

We braced ourselves for the pooping of our lives, but a split second before the onslaught from astern, the bow disappeared as we nosedived into a wall of water in front. No one had seen that coming, not that it would have done any good if they had.

As the bow submarined into this secondary wave, Grimalkin’s stern rose until it arced over the bow and stood us on our nose. As we approached the vertical, crew were thrown against the back of the coachroof or out of the boat altogether. A split second later and we were hit from astern by the breaking wave and we pitchpoled.

Solid water and bubbles rushed past my face, my limbs streamed out as I was towed underwater like a mackerel spinner by my harness line. I had no idea which way was up, where the boat was, or what would happen next. Helpless, overpowered and overwhelmed, when your predicament gets to this stage your mind goes into an alien state where fear is replaced with resignation. But, as I was to discover three hours later, this clearly wasn’t my time yet.

How the Daily Star reported the 1979 Fastnet Race disaster

Seconds later I broke the surface, trailing alongside the boat, spluttering, thrashing around and desperate to get hold of anything connected to the boat. Although she had righted herself, Grimalkin was now starting to accelerate down the face of another wave.

I don’t really know what happened next other than somehow I managed to get back aboard. As I scrambled back on deck, I could hear shouting, but in the dark, the noise and the drama of the conditions it was impossible to work out who was saying what.

As I tried to make sense of the situation I looked aft to see a pair of hands clutching one of the vertical legs of the pushpit. It was Dave Wheeler hanging on, struggling to keep his head above the quarter wave. As the stern pitched and heaved, somehow we pulled him back aboard.

I sat there and looked at him and for a reason I still don’t understand, ran my hand down his harness line to find his carbine hook floating free, detached from the boat. Both of us went numb with shock.

The winchman from a Wessex V helicopter goes into the water to rescue a survivor from Camargue . Photo: Royal Navy

Until this moment, running with the seas had been slightly more comfortable, safer even, than trying to reach across them or lie ahull where we felt like a sitting duck waiting for yet another breaking crest to roll us on our side, sometimes through 360°.

Sailing downhill reduced the apparent windspeed, reduced heeling and provided a degree of manoeuvrability that allowed us to dodge the terrifying breaking crests. The trouble was that at speed and with waves coming from all directions – now the breeze had swung through 90° – the potential for a major pile up was greatly increased.

The reality was that until now we had simply been lucky, most of the breakers had rolled past us on either side – just. On this point of sail there was no skill in avoiding the waves, we were simply playing a game of Russian roulette. And when the bullet and the barrel lined up, the waves that struck us broadside had simply laid us flat or rolled us, ejecting the crew into the sea.

Running out of options

That was frightening and risky enough, but the pitchpole that we had just experienced was all the more distressing as it drove home the unpleasant truth that we were fast running out of options. What else could we try? How much more could we take? How much more could our boat withstand and how much more water below decks would it take to see her start to sink?

As we took knock after knock, thinking beyond the next 60 seconds seemed impossible. Tired, cold and hypothermic, just responding to our surroundings second by second was the best our six-man crew could achieve. Our ability to make rational decisions was being impaired rapidly.

Even the simplest things were becoming difficult. I remember that, despite recognising the various components of zip on my oilskin jacket, I just couldn’t work out how to do it up.

But, over the course of the next few hours, life was about to become far more taxing and present the most serious dilemma I have ever experienced.

• 1. Pitchpoled
• 2. The final blow
• 3. Drowning
• 4. The right response?
• 5. Dry land

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