John Rousmaniere, a sailing writer "best known for his chilling firsthand account of the worst disaster in yacht racing, the 1979 Fastnet Race between southwest England and Ireland, an event that changed the direction of his life," died on August 8, the New York Times reported. He was 82. Sometimes called the dean of American sailing historians, he "wrote gracefully and without sentimentality about the sea and about a sport that is often associated with the Larry Ellison class of yacht owners, but that also appeals to plenty of nonwealthy people drawn by the freedom of open water and the exhilaration of a well-trimmed boat."
Educated as a historian at Columbia University, Rousmaniere's books include The Annapolis Book of Seamanship (1983), a practical reference--now in its fourth edition--that has been used by the U.S. Naval Academy and recreational sailors; and The Golden Pastime: A New History of Yachting (1986).
An experienced offshore sailor, in August 1979 he joined the crew of a 48-foot Swan sloop, one of 300 yachts entered in the Fastnet Race, with a planned route of 605 miles from the Isle of Wight to Fastnet Rock off Ireland and back. A freakish storm hit, with gale-force winds and 50-foot frothing waves. In waves that flipped 35-foot yachts "like bathtub toys," as he later wrote, 24 crews abandoned their vessels and 15 sailors died. Helicopter crews and commercial and naval seamen rescued 136 sailors, the Times noted.
Rousmaniere's book about the tragedy, Fastnet, Force 10 (1980), spurred changes that made yacht racing safer. He also helped create the U.S. Sailing Association's Safety at Sea course, which about 2,500 sailors take every year.
The experience also changed his life. "It was after that book that he began to think about expanding his religiosity," said his wife, Leah Rousmaniere.
In 1984, he entered Union Theological Seminary in New York, and received a Master of Divinity degree. Although Rousmaniere did not enter the ministry, he published After the Storm (2002), "a ruminative book about well-known ocean calamities and how survivors have looked for meaning in their aftermaths," the Times noted, adding that he admitted introspection wasn't natural for him.
"Ordinarily, I repress these sorts of emotions," he told the Washington Post. "I'm a Yankee, after all.... If life is a voyage, storms are a pretty good metaphor for what hits everyone at some point."
Early in his writing career, Rousmaniere worked as an associate editor at Yachting magazine from 1972 to 1977, and then was an independent writer. He helped America's Cup skipper Dennis Conner write a memoir, No Excuse to Lose (1978), and edited Desirable and Undesirable Characteristics of Offshore Yachts (1987) for the Technical Committee of the Cruising Club of America.
While writing Fastnet, Force 10, he interviewed survivors, rescuers, and grieving family members throughout England. "I took trains everywhere," he wrote. "Having survived a force 10 storm, I was not about to strain whatever good luck remained by driving on the right-hand side of the road."