Fastnet Yacht Race 1979 Memorial

Fastnet 1979 memorial,
Holy Trinity Church, Cowes

The Fastnet Offshore Yacht Race is organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) of the United Kingdom and takes place every two years in August. Starting from Cowes, the course is out through the Needles channel, westward along the English Channel, round Land's End, across the Celtic Sea and around the Fashnet Rock. Up until 2019, the return course was around the Scilly Isles and finishing at Plymouth.

The race is always challenging due to the often storms at gale force during that time of year.

During the 1979 Fastnet Race the weather deteriorated unexpectedly and a severe storm hit the race when the yachts were in the Celtic Sea. Of the 303 yachts that started, 24 were abandoned, of which five were lost and believed to have sunk, due to the high winds and severe sea conditions. Nineteen people lost their lives (fifteen competing yachtsmen and four rescuers) and the rescue efforts involved some 4,000 others in what became the largest ever rescue operation in peacetime.

On the north side of Holy Trinity Church, Queens Road, Cowes stands this memorial.

Affixed to the wall of Holy Trinity above the memorial is a plaque with the names of those who lost their lives:

1979 FASTNET RACE IN MEMORIAM
PAUL BALDWIN ROBIN BOWYER Sub-Lt RUSSELL BROWN DAVID CRISP OLIVIA DAVIDSON JOHN DIX	PETER DOREY PETER EVERSON FRANK FERRIS WILLIAM Le FEVRE RICHARD PENDRED PETER PICKERING JOHN PUXLEY	ROBERT ROBIE DAVID SHEAHAN Sub-Lt CHARLES STEAVENSON ROGER WATTS GERRIT JAN WILLERINK GERALD WINKS

The plaque on the memorial reads:

THIS GARDEN, GIVEN BY THE R.O.R.C. AND THESE STONES FROM THE FASTNET ROCK BY IRISH YACHTSMEN, ARE IN MEMORY OF THOSE LOST AT SEA IN THE STORM DURING THE FASTNET RACE AUGUST 1979