Fastnet ’79 remembered
It’s 30 years since the 1979 Fastnet Race, when 15 people lost their lives as a ferocious storm swept the fleet. In a special 20-page feature we look back at that race, interview survivors, examine how much weather forecasting has changed and ask whether it could happen again. Matthew Sheahan recalls his own tragic Fastnet ’79 when, at the age of 17, he had to make the decision to leave the stricken Grimalkin and take to the liferaft

Solo Corinthians
OSTAR, the Corinthian solo transatlantic race, started at the end of June. Elaine Bunting was there to see the fleet off from Plymouth and examine what modifications crews had made to their ordinary production boats to meet the rigours of the North Atlantic.

PLUS Cowes Week preview and the story of the 1904 gaff cutter Merrymaid round Cape Horn.