A gripping account of an exceptional storm at sea, and its devastating effects on boats and aircraft, written by a writer who is a fine journalist but by his own admission has no first-hand knowledge of the sea or of boats. The narrative includes some heroic rescues and attempts at rescue, in a storm which caused substantial loss of life both from vessels and from rescue aircraft.
He has done a conscientious job, and produced a book which is factual and informative and very hard indeed to put down. However there is scope for questioning his interpretation and judgement of the facts regarding one of the major incidents that he reports.
He recounts, factually, the difficulties faced by the yacht "Satori", and faithfully gives in some detail one (but only one) of two conflicting and controversial viewpoints as to their situation. The two crew, at least one of whom was massively experienced, became convinced that the severity of their predicament was such that they were in distress, and they then activated the distress signals. They felt that the skipper had been so overwhelmed by the severity of the storm that he had effectually ceased to function, and in sheer terror and resignation he was just lying comatose in his bunk. That is a damming indictment of the skipper, but it is only one view, and one which the skipper strongly contests.
Eventually, in a massively difficult and risky operation which must be well above the normal operating limit of the aircraft, a helicopter succeeded in evacuating all three persons on board and left the yacht drifting. The owner/skipper refused to leave the yacht, but was overruled by the Coastguard, who resorted to the legal process of declaring it a "manifestly unsafe voyage" in order to have the power to overrule him.
The first thing the owner did after being landed ashore was to get out the charts and plot the position and the likely drift of the yacht, and when the storm subsequently blew itself out and the abandoned boat washed ashore he was there on the beach to meet her and recover her.
That is faithfully recounted. What the writer does not say in the main text, although he does cover part of it in a small and brief footnote in small type, is the other side of the story. Just as at least one of the crew was massively experienced, so was the skipper; it has been reported elsewhere that he was very well known on that coast and had the reputation of being a very sensible and highly competent and experienced skipper. His viewpoint, expressed after the event, was that the yacht was immensely well found and was in no danger of sinking. In that judgement he was in fact proved right by events; it is difficult to fault the argument that, far from being a "manifestly unsafe voyage", it was so "unsafe" that after having been compulsorily abandoned the unmanned yacht continued to look after herself until she eventually washed ashore, and very clearly had the skipper and crew remained aboard this is prima facie evidence that they would indeed have survived the storm - exactly as the skipper expected.
The skipper maintains that far from having mentally and psychologically collapsed, he was allowing the boat to lie a-hull, which is a well established and often successful storm tactic - although he in turn omits to say that in the wake of the 1979 Fastnet Gale that tactic has started to be questioned.
This then comes down to a matter of judgement, and to a legitimate disagreement between the only two (or possibly three) highly experienced people who were actually on the spot at the time.
The book comes down heavily on one side of this disagreement, without adequately presenting the other side, and without making any attempt to evaluate (or to obtain an expert evaluation) of the conflicting views. It has also been reported elsewhere that he made no effort to interview the skipper concerned.
That imbalance is a significant failing of the boom, but with the exception of that limitation it is otherwise a gripping and informative and well-written account of an exceptional storm.
