‘We were looking for a needle in a haystack’

It was the race that changed yacht racing. RNLI Baltimore’s Kieran Cotter on the Fastnet tragedy of 1979.

Former Baltimore RNLI Coxswain Kieran Cotter joined the RNLI when he was just 19, and would go on to receive an RNLI Bronze Medal for Gallantry. In August 1979, Kieran and his fellow crew members were called to aid sailors competing in the Fastnet Race, in which 5 yachts sank and 15 lives were lost. The shout to the yacht Regardless was just the start of what would be a 22-hour mission.