Fastnet, Force 10In August 1979, 303 yachts began the 600 mile Fastnet Race from the Isle of Wight, off the southwest coast of England, to Fastnet Rock off the Irish coast and back. It started in fine weather, but then suddenly became a terrifying ordeal. A Force 10, sixty knot storm swept across the North Atlantic with a speed that confounded forecasters, slamming into the fleet with epic fury. For twenty hours, 2,500 men and women were smashed by forty foot breaking