I had a trio of personal objectives for my first Fastnet – 1) don’t get soaked on day one, 2) round the iconic rock in the daylight, and 3) finish the race. Crossing the start line in Cougar of Cowes and heading into a ferocious southwesterly gale, the first of those objectives was quickly foiled.
Cougar is a Reflex 38 that had recently changed ownership and had needed quite a lot of work to get race-ready. She is advertised for charter with a single sentence stating: “Cougar is for hardcore sailors not bothered by the luxuries of life, but she does have eight single bunks and one double.” Our Fastnet crew numbered nine with skipper Ruaraidh Plummer (founder of London School of Sailing), and with each qualifying race we sailed we indeed became more hardcore and less accustomed to the luxuries of life.
By race day the team had gelled well into two watches of four with the skipper outside the watch system. My position was “mast”, meaning I was second on the rail. Twenty minutes after the start, as pushed on into the gale-force wind and horizontal rain in the Solent, waves crashed over her bow and down the side-deck, lifting me bodily off the deck and onto the next person, who was experiencing a similar drenching. I had thought long and
