...This is sad, but the failure...or refusal...to take advantage of current safety standards make this the watery equivalent of driving off-road in a Mini Cooper without a seatbelt or helmet.
Some of the details I'd like to see are absent in the article. There's no mention, for instance, of whether the companionway was shut or whether there was any evidence of flooding belowdecks.
An EPIRB may not have made a lick of difference if the boat was rolled and the crew was separated from the boat. Even a hydrostatic release might not have activated during a roll. And to the best of my knowledge, the French EPIRB requirement does not require an external hydrostatic mount. So if an EPIRB was below decks with a ditch kit (where many people keep it), it would have done nothing for them or the searchers.
Don't get me wrong -- I'm very much in favor of EPIRBs. I just can't tell from the available facts whether one would have helped them in any way.
night0wl - what is wrong with the boat - it is a patently blue-water capable vessel as evidenced by the fact that it is still afloat. How would the crew have fared better on another boat? If one isn't tethered or belowdecks when the boat rolls then one has littele chance of remaining with the boat regardless of whether it is full-keeled or heavy displacement or cutter rigged.
Zanshin,
If it were simply a question of, all else equal, "How does the crew fare when the boat rolls?", you might have a valid point.
But it's not even the keel design that is at issue when distinguishing between "bluewater" and coastal boats. The real question concerns the boats resistance to rolling in the first instance, regardless of keel design.
Designers can calculate the limit of positive stability (LPS), i.e. the point at which the boat will continue to roll over through 360 degrees rather than self-right from the direction of the knockdown. There are minimum suggested LPS figures for off-shore boats, and it's pretty rare for coastal designs to meet those minimum requirements. Many of them fall well short.
I don't know what the calculated LPS of this Jeaneau boat was, but in any case we have no idea at this point whether it was rolled. Based on the description provided (rigging and sails intact, no mention of flooding belowdecks), my best guess is that it wasn't.
Which leads to your other point: "it is a patently blue-water capable vessel as evidenced by the fact that it is still afloat." I'm not sure I follow the reasoning of this statement. I would argue that simply being afloat is a pretty low standard to set as a qualifier for a bluewater boat. these are personal preferences, of course, but I think at a minimum such a boat should extremely resist capsizing, be capable of withstanding a severe pounding, arrive with a minimum of wear and tear or damage, and protect and deliver it's crew safely to their destination.
Again, we don't know what happened, but it does appear this crew was somehow ejected or swept from their vessel, likely in adverse conditions. Yes, the hull survived, but the crew did not.
