Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney-Hobart Race (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

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

From Publishers Weekly

Joining the summer's books on the treacherous Vend?e Globe sailing race (Derek Lundy's The Godforsaken Sea and Pete Goss's Close to Wind), Mundle's effort is the first of three forthcoming titles about the 1998 Sydney-Hobart yachting race (Pocket is publishing Martin Dugard's account in September; Little, Brown will offers Bruce Knecht's next year). In that race, seven boats were abandoned, five sank, six people died and 55 sailors were hoisted by rescuers from the impetuous seas. Seasoned journalist Mundle, himself a three-time Sydney-Hobart veteran, writes a knowledgeable account of the 115 boats and 1135 competitors that left Sydney Harbor on December 26, having precious little warning about the brutal cyclone that awaited them in the perilous Bass Strait. When the seas began towering to the height of five-story buildings, sailors were tossed about their yachts like rag dolls in a malevolent washing machine. Mundle, who covered the race for Australian television, deliberately sails around the tempest of controversies that followed the event, preferring to treat the story as a straight job of blow-by-blow reportage. While his careful plotting of a dozen boats' travails is certainly of interest, a surreal sense of dispassion pervades the text like an eerie calm found in the eye of a storm. Nonetheless, moments of poignancy stand out. One strung-out sailor hallucinates a monkey sitting atop a jagged stump of mast, while several others vow that spending hours in a wrecked cabin full of vomit, diesel fuel and salt-water convinced them to change their lives. "I've been a pretty selfish bastard," says one chastened survivor. "Just ask my wife." 40,000 first printing.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 251 pages
• Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; 1 edition (June 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071356983
• ISBN-13: 978-0071356985
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,435,516 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling and Factual Account, October 29, 1999

By A Customer

Having met Rob Mundle at The Armchair Sailor in Newport, I am extremely impressed by his overwhelming concern and thoughtfulness for the people involved in the 1998 Sydney-Hobart Race. Mundle obviously went to great lengths to get the most factual information about the race, and he weaves the hundreds of stories together wonderfully in his book. Excellent book on a moving subject.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read for a long airline flight, April 4, 2002

By	Bruce V. Culver (Troy, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney-Hobart Race (Paperback)

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!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clip on your lifeline!, March 3, 2000

By A Customer

If you've ever wondered what it's really like to be inside the cabin of a sailboat that has just been flipped by an 80-foot wave and 100 mph winds, read Fatal Storm. Mundle's sailing experience and descriptive prose made this fateful race come alive for me. Long after I had put the book down from a record three-hour reading session, my world was still rocking, I still felt the wind and rain in my face, and I found myself glancing behind, waiting for the next rogue wave to slam me down one more time. Anyone even remotely interested or connected to the world of sailing should not miss this spellbinding tale. Most important, you will remember its important lessons when you leave for an offshore cruise or race of your own.