short answers 1/ what idiot goes out in a small sailboat when a hurricane has been predicted for days ? 2/ read pardey's ' 'storm tactics.'
If that is a response to my post, I think you mean 2 & 4 not 1 & 2 but.. anyways... I think we are in agreement. Mostly... but do we know it was a small boat? I can't tell from that grainy picture and...
for # 2) I asked
"How long had they been out? Had they planned on being back to port before the storm and things went sideways or did they fail to check the weather? If they failed to check then maybe Darwin should have his way."
The article didn't say if they were passage making and got caught or if they were out for a day sail. If they were out for a day sail then let DARWIN remove them from the gene pool.
for # 4) i aksed
"Was the boat set up for heavy air sailing? If not, maybe we give another pass to Darwin."
Again this has a lot to do with their situation and the article does not give us enough info to understand their situation. For instance, if they were passage making, why didn't they have the ability to put up a storm sail and reef deeply? Again! Let Darwin have his way if they didn't prepare properly but maybe they did have storm equipment and were sick, ill, injured etc. and unable to deploy.
I can't tell what actually happened so I will withhold judgment.
The article was interesting but not educational. I would love to know more details about the sailors AND I'd like to understand why the swimmer got into a jam. Things that seem odd to me ...
1) Why was he dropped on the windward side of the boat? Maybe they had a good reason but it seems counter intutive to me.
2) Why were they unable to pick him up out of the water with the chopper's sling?
3) Why did they wait so long to send another vessel to pick him up? Etc.
As
@shemandr so eliquently stated....FUBAR!
Hopefully the CG will post a post mortum on the incident.