Battered by a Megastorm: Yacht Race Catastrophe

Real Survival Stories

NOISER

Society & Culture, Documentary, Sports, Wilderness, History

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Nick Ward is a young English sailor chasing a lifetime ambition, as he competes in one of the world’s elite yacht races. But out in the Celtic Sea, he and his crewmates find themselves caught in a once-in-a-generation storm. For hours they’ll fight together, side by side. But after one wave too many, Nick will be left to face this life-or-death struggle alone… A Noiser production, written by Dan Smith. For more on Nick’s story, read Left For Dead: The 1979 Fastnet Race - One Man’s Epic Story of Survival. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If just thinking about your bills makes you feel confused and disorientated,
0:05.0	like your head is full of Raspberry,
0:08.0	then you need Monzo.
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0:15.0	Money never felt like Monzo.
0:18.0	UK Residents Tease and C Supply.
0:27.0	August the 14th, 1979. It's early morning, somewhere out in the Celtic Sea of the South Coast of Ireland.
0:32.0	24-year-old Nick Ward stands aboard the 30-foot racing yacht Grimulkin.
0:37.0	One of a crew of six, he's been battling gale force winds for hours.
0:42.0	He is soaked and frozen to the bone.
0:46.5	Monstrous waves rear up on all sides, vertical slabs of water. They smashed down, drenching the crew and tossing the yacht about like a children's toy.
0:59.0	Nick has never seen anything like it. The conditions which were becoming intolerable I'd not experienced ever before.
1:10.0	And so for me it was unknown territory.
1:12.8	And we were, I was scared,
1:14.8	scared of what was happening.
1:16.5	It was so difficult to control the boat, so difficult.
1:21.6	The exhausted sailors huddled together.
1:24.0	They desperately need a plan, but there is a difference of opinion.
1:28.0	Some want to deploy the life raft to set themselves adrift and trust help will come. But Nick is dead
1:35.0	against the idea. The advice of his father keeps coming back to him.
1:40.0	One of his first rules was do not leave the boat even if she capsizes.
1:48.0	So that was just in my head all the time.
	...

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