Fastnet race tragedy remembered

A FORMER lighthouse keeper has been honoured at a commemorative event marking the 40th anniversary of the 1979 Fastnet race disaster.

A portrait of Gerald Butler by Welsh artist Dan Llywelyn Hall was unveiled yesterday on Cape Clear in Co Cork, Ireland’s southernmost inhabited Gaeltacht island, as friends and families remembered the men and women who died in the yacht race.

Tributes were also paid to those who risked their lives to rescue the sailors.

A total of 19 people - 15 sailors and four spectators - died in the Irish Sea in August 1979 when a freak storm wreaked havoc with more than 300 yachts as they raced from southern England to the Fastnet rock off the coast of Cork.

The 600-mile race began in balmy, calm conditions but three days later sailors were forced to deal with almost hurricane-force winds.

During the storm rescuers battled through Force 10 winds and 40ft waves to save dozens of crews.

Mr Butler, who worked on some of Ireland’s most remote lighthouses including Skellig Michael, was on duty on Fastnet island that fateful night.

He said that Mr Hall’s portrait of him would “come into its own when people concerned with the race are long gone”.

“Dan’s image of the Fastnet rock also appears to be caught in its own time and remains as the yachtsmen would have seen it,” he said.

In the wake of the tragedy new regulations were introduced to limit the number of yachts competing in the race to 300.