It is over 10 years since this ill-fated Fastnet Race claimed the lives of fifteen yachtsmen and the total loss of five yachts. A total of twenty-four crews abandoned their yachts and in all, 136 people were saved by being winched into helicopters and taken on board merchant and naval ships as well as other yachts. Some eighteen yachts needed the assistance of lifeboats because they had lost their rudders.