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Fatal Storm | 
 enlarge | Manufacturer: HarperCollins e-books
Category: EBooks
List Price: $11.95
Buy New: $9.56
You Save: $2.39 (20%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 46266
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Dewey Decimal Number: 797
ASIN: B000FC11QU
Publication Date: December 4, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Amazon.com Review
In the world of competitive off-shore sailing, Christmas Day is thought of as Boxing Day Eve--that is, the eve of the annual Sydney-to-Hobart Race. One of the world's three major offshore races (along with the Fastnet out of England and America's Newport Race to Bermuda), the 630-mile course from Sydney, Australia, to Hobart, Tasmania, is a test of skills, guts, and endurance in notoriously unpredictable, fickle waters--and in any weather. On Boxing Day, 1998, the 115 boats jockeying at the starting line off Sydney's Nielsen Park Beach had been warned that low-pressure weather systems were conspiring to guarantee a wild and chancy race. Yet few sailors anticipated the ferocity of the storm that descended around two o'clock the next morning, whipping up gale-force winds and waves tall enough to send 25-ton yachts "spearing into midair," then "plunging down into the trough ... like repeatedly launching a truck off a 30-foot ramp and awaiting the crash." The race quickly devolved into the worst sailing disaster in recent memory. Seven crews abandoned their boats. Over 50 sailors were rescued under near-impossible circumstances. Seven died, and five boats sank. Journalist Rob Mundle follows the dramatic struggles in Fatal Storm, skillfully re-creating from firsthand accounts the stories of bravery, luck, and folly that left a handful of sailors convinced they'd never go near the Hobart again. Yet as one veteran yachtsman lived to point out, "It's something you just have to do.... You can't be under the illusion at any time that it is safe." --Svenja Soldovieri
Product Description
PerfectBound Special Feature! Read the author, Rob Mundle's summary of the coroner's report and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia investigation into the tragedy. The Sydney to Hobart yacht race has become established as one of the world's major sporting events. The race in 1998 became one of the world's major sporting disasters with the tragic loss of six sailors, injuries to many others and damage to many boats. The search and rescue operation was more like the D-Day landing exercise. Its story leaves Saving Private Ryan in the shade. Had it not been for the superior skills in organisation and operation many more would have been lost.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 A definite read for all that love the sea February 22, 2008
I picked up with book without knowing the details of the race or even that there was such a race between Sydney and Hobart. But within pages I could not put it down. The book is a must for any sailer, kayaker or power boater. It tells the tales of the spirit of sport combined with an under estimation of what mother nature can produce.
 The Imperfect Storm July 24, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
The Southern Ocean---that landless sweep of sea that girds the lower third of our planet and isolates Antarctica---is notorious for its evil weather. Huge rollers, unchecked by any landmass, roil around the circumference of the Earth, making this area one of the most daunting, hazardous and challenging for any mariner.
Once yearly on Boxing Day, the 630-mile Sydney-to-Hobart Yacht Race crosses a small portion of the Southern Ocean. One of the three great sport sailing events (along with the Fastnet and the Newport-to-Bermuda) the Sydney-to-Hobart has always had its fickle aspect, but never more so than 1998 when the entire regatta found itself trapped in an unforecasted cyclonic "bomb"---a small and unseasonable but virulent hurricane that produced 80 knot winds and steep hundred foot waves in the relatively narrow Bass Strait.
Although only six sailors died, most of the fleet was battered into kindling by the waves, tall as buildings, heavier, and with much more velocity. Author Rob Mundle, an experienced distance ocean sailor, does a fine job of reportage as he tracks and traces the fates of the various participants, including the Sea-Rescue parajumpers who leapt into the darkness of the angry ocean to save the hapless crews of the shattered boats.
FATAL STORM is well written and avoids becoming bogged down in too much nautical technospeak making it a good adventure story for the armchair enthusiast. The one drawback of FATAL STORM is that Mundle assumes the reader's relative familiarity with the meteorology, landforms, and idiosyncrasies of Australia's natural environment. For those of us not "Down Under" this makes FATAL STORM slightly more difficult to decode than it needs to be.
 Worth a read July 5, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is such a riveting story that it would be hard to write a bad book about it. Mundle is a fine writer, and the book is easy to read and a real page turner.
As a story teller though, he could use some improvement. For example, one of the yachts is capsized by a giant wave and a man thrown overboard. What happens to him? Will he drown in the stormy waters of Bass Straight? Or is he rescued? We turn the page to find... a quote from the man in question describing what was going through his head as he fell from the yacht. So he lives! Full marks for thorough research, zero for sustaining the tension of the story.
Another caveat for non boating readers. Mundle makes no attempt to explain any of the yachting jargon used throughout the book, so if you are a non boating person like myself, I would recommend reading with a copy of Wikipedia or the full Oxford dictionary by your side so you can understand terms like storm sail, jib, cockpit and many others that are used throughout the book. This will enhance your enjoyment of the book no end.
All in all a great read.
Inspiring and frightning September 29, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Rob Mundle is journalist and it shows. But behind the bonhomie and parochialism of the yachting scene insider there's an immediacy to this narrative, a rawness to the action and a fire in these heroics that combine to make Fatal Storm an inspiring read. There's something wild about this story, something that makes it different to Fastnet Force 10. There are moments in Fatal Storm when the sailors reading it will be afraid.
Great Read for a long airline flight April 5, 2002
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I finished this book on a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles...with one disaster after another occurring in this massive storm, the writer keeps the reader actively turning pages throughout the book. You would not believe the bravery of everyone involved, from the actual racing teams to the rescue teams, not one person was left unphased by this experience.I am not an active sailor now, but with some experience in racing with a crew on sailboats, I found the account of this true story gripping. Certainly, a fun book to read, even if you are not into sailing. It may even convince you to never go open ocean sailing!
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