There was a similar incident here in NZ a short while ago where a skipper with some "friends" was sailing from one port to another and the weather kicked up a bit (very definitely not hurricane stuff) and the crew got frightened, the skipper couldn't hold them together and they mutinied.
Against the skipper's commands they triggered the
EPIRB and initiated an SAR. the Coast Guard arrived with a chopper, took the crew off and the skipper who by now was buggered from having to do everything himself for the past however many hours decided that discretion was the better part of valour and abandoned his vessel.
I don't recall hearing anything about the destiny of the vessel, whether it was found or not (or even if anyone bothered looking for it) but this again outlines the need to have compatible crew or the ability to carry on without them.
I understand from press and news reports that the weather was not even storm level, just about 30 knots of wind and moderate seas.
Andre