Why is racing cancelled at Cowes?

Daydream believer said:
I thought that Silk was only 40 ft long. If that was the case then the mast would be 6 m from the bow and at 45 degrees the bowman would have only been about 4m under and then only if he was right at the point.
still makes a good story at the bar though
the owner put the blame on the failure of the spinnaker to shred in the gust which he thought it should have done rather than drive the boat under
good bit of helming to keep it nice and straight as it went down . Pity it flopped sideways after, rather than pop up straight again
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Talk in Cowes that evening was that the owner's son had been thrown overboard and just missed being scalped by the propshaft. Just hearsay, mind you.
 
Bobc said:
I suspect the OP has never raced in The Solent and has no idea how dangerous it would be.

I can see the BBC headlines if it were to go ahead:-

" People dead, yachts sunk, and millions of pounds worth of damage at Cowes week". What a great advert for the event.
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On the bright side, it would give the mags something more recent than That Bloody Fastnet Race to bang on about.
 
When I was technical photographer for Hawkers / BAe Harrier trials at the West Freugh test range near Stranraer I went to Air Traffic with the Test Pilot of the moment, he wanted to know if the crosswind was within limits, I wanted to know if there'd be enough light for the onboard cameras.

It was often so windy it was a struggle opening the hangar side door.

There was no-one at the met' station - the pilot put his finger to his lips signalling me to keep quiet, went up to the lever arm on the trace recorder of the anemometer and gave it a mighty flick...

When I raised my eyebrows he whispered " I always do that here on windy days, I'm trying to get the highest recorded gust in Britain " :)
 
Seajet said:
When I was technical photographer for Hawkers / BAe Harrier trials at the West Freugh test range near Stranraer I went to Air Traffic with the Test Pilot of the moment, he wanted to know if the crosswind was within limits, I wanted to know if there'd be enough light for the onboard cameras.

It was often so windy it was a struggle opening the hangar side door.

There was no-one at the met' station - the pilot put his finger to his lips signalling me to keep quiet, went up to the lever arm on the trace recorder of the anemometer and gave it a mighty flick...

When I raised my eyebrows he whispered " I always do that here on windy days, I'm trying to get the highest recorded gust in Britain " :)
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Absolutely super!
 
Daydream believer said:
Ok ! so what is so "Bloody" about the Fastnet race?
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They bang on and on and on and on and on and on about it. In one edition of YM a couple of years ago I counted seven mentions, in different articles, of that one race. OK, that was an outlier, but it reliably crops up once or twice in every single edition.

It's forty years ago. Move on, guys.

See also: It's over fifty years since England won the World Cup.
 
JumbleDuck said:
They bang on and on and on and on and on and on about it. In one edition of YM a couple of years ago I counted seven mentions, in different articles, of that one race. OK, that was an outlier, but it reliably crops up once or twice in every single edition.

It's forty years ago. Move on, guys.

See also: It's over fifty years since England won the World Cup.
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It's because the 79 Fastnet resulted in real progress in optimising the techniques and gear used in extreme conditions, I don't mind it being mentioned if an actual point's being made.
Although as you say, it gets name-dropped by bone-idle copywriters at every opportunity..
 

Jumble duck you appear confused. Can I help?

Clearly, with Cowes week. racing was cancelled. No one told anyone what they should do about it. Or not.

Simply 'no race'. Sorry if that takes you off of your points scoring track.......;)
 
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Ohlin Karcher said:
Is the decision taken by some large organisation, which is desperate to avoid bad publicity or even being sued?
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Yes. Our club racing used to be "any weather - skipper to decide" but now the OOD has to cancel racing if at any time the wind is forecast to exceed 30kn. This is the advice specifically of the RYA and its lawyers. If you are th organiser of a race you cannot hide behind the argument that its the duty of the skipper to decide.

The irony of course is that 30kn for a sportsboat with no reefing is a bit more dodgy than it is for my 35 ft cruiser with 6 crew and lots of reefing.

Its modern life. You cant fight it.
 
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