40 YEARS ON

Back in 1979, Ted Turner’s Tenacious took line honours in the Fastnet Race, finishing in 3 days 8 hours. Over the last 30 years the average speed across the 605-mile Fastnet course has increased phenomenally: at the elite end, the fastest Ultime trimarans complete the course in just a third of Tenacious’s time. Yet for the smallest yachts in the race, the race can still take five full days.

Yacht design has changed enormously in 30 years, but even more so communications, navigation and access to weather information. So it begs the question of whether a tragedy on such a wide scale could ever happen again?

Navigating in 1979 was a world away from column ‘In the Offing’, was published directly after the finish and paints a picture of a time when developing weather conditions and other competitors’ situations were something of a mystery, and safety and navigation gear rudimentary.