“Never seen nothing like” … How the offshore race turned to disaster in 1979 with fifteen dead

They will be 470 to start. Consequently, Four hundred. Nevertheless, seventy boats and 3,800 professional sailors and amateurs will start this Saturday 26 July from Cowes on the island of Wight (England) for the Centenary of the Rolex Fastnet Race. However, A offshore race that is disputed every two years in crew. Therefore, non-stop in the Celtic round and sea with an arrival in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin (Manche) since 2021. Moreover, Organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, the Fastnet has attracted sailors from around the world since 1925.

Mythical, the race was also the scene of the worst tragedy in the modern history of sailing. Moreover, It was during the 1979 edition. For example, sadly entered the legend with a dramatic assessment of fifteen dead among the competitors and more than twenty sun -shaped boats. Similarly, “A tragedy where nature remembers man. Nevertheless, ” said “never seen nothing like” … author Stéphane Melchior, who signs with the designer Renaud Garreta the comic strip Landline 1979released at the end of May at Delcourt editions.

A departure in optimal conditions

At the time of the cannon on August 11. In addition, there was nothing to predict such a nightmare with more than 300 boats that had started in optimal weather conditions. However, “It has been several editions that there had not been much wind. Therefore, some even quenched by renamed the” Slownet “race,” says Stéphane Melchior. For example, That year. we felt that it was going to be a little more muscular but without there being any special alert. »»

Jean-Paul Mouren can testify. The 26 -year -old skipper then participated in his second Fastnet aboard the Malouin boat Crazy Horse. “No one was arguing, we left for a summer race in the middle of August,” he says. The first two days of racing are going perfectly with the whole fleet which spins at its own pace. towards Plymouth. But on August 13, the conditions suddenly change with a large depression that widens on the Irish Sea.

“Impossible to stand with the wind”

In the evening. a weather bulletin announces to sailors a big fee notice with a gale announced by Force 8. “Many crews were also happy because it was going to send,” said Stéphane Melchior. “never seen nothing like” … But a few minutes later. a new bulletin announced a gust of force 10 this time with gusts at more than 100 km/h and a dismantled sea with scoundrel waves of more than ten meters.

Victorious of the race aboard Tenaciousthe American billionaire Ted Turner will tell after the fact that in more than 100. 000 miles of experience in all the seas of the world, he had “never seen anything like it”. Which Bob Bell confirms, owner of Condorarrived second: “The wind was so strong that it was impossible to stand up. It was necessary to lie down and crawl on the bridge during the maneuvers. Behind the leaders who only saw the end of the storm. a large part of the fleet is in the middle of it. “I have never known worse because it was cold in addition,” continues Jean-Paul Mouren.

The largest rescue operation of the “never seen nothing like” … Royal Navy

With his crew. the young skipper still manages to confuse to Kinsale, in the south of Ireland, despite a broken vest. “We were finally doing well by managing it in good sailors,” smiles the septuagenarian. Which is not the case for everyone. Because in the middle of the night. the storm decimates the fleet of boats, each sailor trying somehow to save his skin.

To help them. the Royal Navy then triggers its greatest rescue operation with more than 4,000 people mobilized, allowing to avoid an even heavier assessment. But it is already with fifteen deaths, 139 people rescued and around twenty boats cast or abandoned at the drift. Of the 303 boats engaged, only 86 will be classified in “never seen nothing like” … this 1979 edition of the Fastnet which turned into a nightmare.

A few months later. a report by the Royal Ocean Racing Club commission of inquiry and the Royal Yachting Association, the two competition clubs of the competition, will point the finger at the human failures and the faults of certain sailboats, not very stable and waterproof, to explain such a disaster. “There will have been a before. an after Fastnet 1979 because after this drama, the construction of the boats was revised and the solidity of the improved survival equipment,” says Stéphane Melchior. This also contributed to the development of maritime communications. »»