Tragic and Difficult Boating Lesson...

Nothing like being stupid.

kind of reminds me of stories about guys getting killed on their Harleys, some of those stories have more details, like the guy was drunk and so were the 2, 300lbs. babes he was giving a ride to.

max. crew weight on a Hobie or Prindle 18, should be around 400lbs. in any kind of rough weather/seas, thats 2, good shape, experienced sailors. 6 on a Hobie 18 is a bad scenario anytime, it ain't the "love boat". then the grieving famillies try to sue the boatbuilder, blah, blah......

consider the annual stories on the Miss. river of runabouts that run into barges. how many beers does it take to not see a 4 story tow boat with 3 wide x 5 long?

18-foot sailboat.

4-foot seas. (chop?)

Small craft advisories.

No VHF radio, apparently. No ditch bag in a vessel with a known capsize risk, either, apparently.

According to the account, very possibly one PFD short.

What a shame, truly. It's always tragic when a life is lost at sea- but how many rules of common sense is anybody allowed to violate without consequence? Here's hoping this ill-advised adventure will serve as a warning to others who might be just as careless or cavalier when considering a day on the water so the young lives claimed by the waves will not have been spent in vain.

I'm not really sure if it was a sailboat or not. These guys were from a city that is about a 7-8 hour drive(depending on potty breaks) from the ocean. They lived in the mountains and were probably only lake boaters. They likely had a hand-held VHF radio or perhaps a cell phone since it appears the started, but did not complete an Mayday.

Though their actions seem stupid, I've heard some posters, here, belittle the dangers of 4-5 foot waves and heightened winds. I hope these guys didn't come here and get the idea that this sort of challenge to Mother Nature is safe.

I'm not sure where these guys put in at, but in those wind/wave conditions, there wasn't a safe access to sheltered waters available. They were essentially doomed from the time they pushed the boat off of the trailer and left safe harbor.