![\"EnRoute-Fiji](\"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/enroute-fiji-134.jpg\")
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With the Fastnet Race (from Cowes, UK, around Fastnet rock off Ireland and back to Plymouth) starting this weekend we’ve been thinking about the 1979 Fastnet Race storm. This was a watershed event in terms of yacht design and heavy weather thinking.<\/p>\n
We were well into our circumnavigation when we first heard rumors of this blow upon arrival in Durban, South Africa. Having gone through three days of gales south and west of Madagascar (in which several yachts were rolled but made it to port on their own) our first thought was the stories of abandoned yachts, sinkings, and death must have been exaggerated.<\/p>\n
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But as the details began to filter in the story proved to be all too true. There have been many interesting books written on the subject, the best of which is John Rousmaniere’s Fastnet Force 10<\/em>, and we have looked at it in our own Surviving the Storm<\/em>. The boats which got into trouble were the product of a racing handicap rule gone astray and lack of preparation on the part of some of the crews.<\/p>\n There were numerous inquiries done, research projects commissioned, and suggestions for changes in the dominant IOR racing rule. And to a degree, there were some positive changes in the way yachts were designed and built for a while. Eventually the industry went back to designing and building what we call percentage boats, on the basis that the risks of a Fastnet 79 storm were so rare that it did not make economic sense to use this event as a baseline.<\/p>\n The impact on us was different. This race takes place in mid-summer, during a period of relatively stable atmosphere, yet there was a substantial weather event, which when combined with a shallow sea bottom and adverse currents, created yacht-destroying conditions. If it could happen here, it could happen elsewhere.<\/p>\n Prior to Fastnet 79 we had considered heavy weather in a theoretical context. We prepared for it, practiced tactics, and dealt with the odd gale or storm. But we never considered being caught in a deadly heavy weather scenario in a personal context. That period of ignorant bliss ended with this deadly race, and we’ve been trying to improve our odds ever since.<\/p>\n This started with taking a more formal approach to weather forecasting, something we’d done in an offhanded manner before. We began to look at the factors that could turn a normal sea state dangerous, such as current and bottom shape, and make voyaging plans accordingly.<\/p>\n We pushed harder on our passages realizing that the less time spent at sea, the less the risks.<\/p>\n Practice with heavy weather gear became more standardized, so we would know how to rig storm sails and drogues when the time came.<\/p>\n And as we got into designing our own yachts heavy weather capability became the bottom line.<\/p>\n So, here we are, 30 years later, a few miles from where this tragedy took place, with the Azores High expanding to provide what may well be too stable a meteorological environment. In the intervening years we’ve covered more than a quarter of millions miles at sea and been exposed to perhaps two days of potentially dangerous conditions. Do we still concern ourselves with stormy weather? No more or less than when the lessons of Fastnet 1979 started to sink in. We don’t obsess about it, but we try to know the risk factors and act accordingly<\/p>\n We want to make our passages quickly, have alternate destinations plotted, carry storm-size ground tackle systems, and want the best heavy weather characteristics in our yachts. We also take advantage of modern weather forecasting techniques, occasionally use a weather router for a second opinion, watch the atmospheric risk factors at the 500mb level, and try to minimize exposure with current and terrain influences on wave shape.<\/p>\n OK, enough of this heavy weather stuff. As mentioned, the Azores High is finally expanding, and we are expecting some nice weather in the UK. Let’s hope it stays this way for a while. We need to work on our tans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"