In The Proving Ground， journalist and lifelong sailor G. BruceKnecht tells the staggering story of the 54th Sydney to Hobart yacht race--anannual event that is always an extreme test of courage and skill in some of theworld s most treacherous seas， but which in 1998 would become the mostdisastrous race in modern yachting history.Although he was already fifty feet from the boat， Brownie didn thave any trouble spotting Glyn. He looked small， and utterly helpless.... Glynwas already having a hard time keeping his head out of the water， and everyonequickly reached the same unthinkable conclusion--Glynn was going to die and there was nothing to do but watch.... Steve Kulmar was more shaken than anyone.When he first came on deck， he believed Glyn was looking directly back athim.Of the 115 boats that started under clear skies in Sydney， just 43 would finish.Six sailors lost their lives， and a further 55 were plucked from the storm afterthe fleet had been decimated by unforecast hurricane winds and 80-foot-highwaves.Knecht s style is novelistic， though measured， with a strong journalisticsensibility marshaling what must have been at times appallingly poignanteyewitness testimony into a coherent account of the disaster. His intended focusis beyond the headlines， and by concentrating on the experiences of a handful ofindividual crews， The Proving Ground succeeds in conveying the agonies oftheir desperate， sometimes futile struggles to survive--and offers some insightinto what drew them to the sea in the first place， and why so many of thesurvivors have felt compelled to face it again. --Alex Hankin，Amazon.co.uk