From the looks of it that crew had about all they could take to keep themselves upright going dead downwind. I can't blame them for not trying to go to assist. Even if they had gone over there, what would they have been able to accomplish in those conditions? They weren't going to be able to pick anyone out of the water, and could have made things worse for everyone by trying to avoid colliding with each other. The crew did say several minutes later that they were concerned about the other boat and that they should go back around after the storm blew out.What I thought interesting is they watched as one boat broached twice and they just kept on going. Hmmm...
As for the decision to go out - reports in the thread above were that there was a 40% chance of storms. Can those second guessing the actions of these crews honestly say they've never gone out in a 40% chance of storms? I'm sure some of us would've stayed in that day, but it's not quite so open and shut of a decision that those who went out deserve ridicule.
Mistakes were made, particularly they delays in donning PFDs, but all in all I don't think this crew did too badly.