On the night of the 13 and 14 of August this year, the great flotilla of yachts taking part in the Fastnet Race were overwhelmed by a storm in the Western Approaches. By morning five yachts had sunk to the bottom, another 20 had been abandoned and 15 competitors had lost their lives. Was there adequate warning of an approaching storm? Was it simply the storm's ferocity that caused so many failures-in boats, gear, safety equipment? Or were there faults in organisation, yacht design, seamanship? Why, above all, were so many lives lost and others placed in peril? Jeremy James questions the issues arising from the official inquiry, scheduled to be published today, and gives some of the survivors a chance to tell their own stories of disaster and rescue.