Fastnet, in the phrase people actually use — the Fastnet, or the Fastnet Race — is a famous yacht race. Every two years, sailing boats leave the south of England, head out into the open sea toward the Fastnet Rock (a lighthouse rock off the south-west of Ireland), and then come back. It is a long, hard ocean race, not a little harbour trip, and sailors treat it with respect. The name that sticks in the wider world’s memory is 1979: a sudden, violent storm hit the fleet. Many boats were wrecked or given up, and people died. When someone says ‘the Fastnet disaster’ they almost always mean that year. Though actually, the race is named after the rock, not after the English word fast, and it is not a ‘fast net’. You will hear it in sailing news, documentaries, and among people who follow ocean racing; it is a proper name, so it keeps its capital F.