In the Journal for May 1980, Adlard Coles, author of Heavy Weather Sailingand an Institute Gold Medallist, gave an account of his own investigation into the weather situation which decimated the ocean racing fleet during the Fastnet Race of 1979. Neither the formal report of the Fastnet Race inquiry nor the official meteorological analysis seemed entirely to explain what had happened. Alan Watts, a meteorologist particularly concerned with small craft navigation, from his own analysis of meteorological factors, including the barometric readings of many of the competitors, here suggests an explanation for the particular violence of the seas which was responsible for most of the damage.