The Ostar's Perfect Storm

A Fierce Low Hit This Year’s Classic Solo Transatlantic Race, Sparking A Huge Rescue Effort. Helen Fretter Reports.

- Helen Fretter

Solo sailor Mervyn Wheatley set out from Plymouth for Newport, Rhode Island on 29 May this year with stirring tunes belting out from his beloved Tamarind, the Formosa 42 that he had owned for nearly two decades. This was to be the 73-year-old’s fifth OSTAR, and a 19th transatlantic for the former Royal Marine and Clipper Round the World Race skipper.

Eleven days later he was preparing to scuttle the yacht that he described as “like another limb”, and step aboard the Queen Mary 2 luxury liner after a 70-knot storm rolled Tamarind, battered the 21-boat OSTAR and TWOSTAR fleet, and set in motion a huge multinational rescue effort across the North Atlantic.

On the morning of 9 June a plunging low pressure system swept across the fleet, reading 964mb at its centre – lower than the fatal Fastnet storm of 1979 – with winds of 60-70 knots and 15m confused North Atlantic seas.

Established in 1960, eight years earlier than the Golden Globe Race, the OSTAR was the first ever solo yacht race – a controversial idea when Blondie Hasler proposed it, racing against the prevailing westerlies.

Organised by the Royal Western Yacht Club, the race retains a distinctly Corinthian spirit. Many skippers are vastly experienced (Wheatley has five Round Britain & Ireland and seven Azores and Back Races to his name), but this event is a world away from professional ocean racing. This year run in conjunction with the double-handed TWOSTAR, 21 competitors of 11 nationalities took part in yachts varying from a 35ft three-quarter tonner to an old Open 60.