Shocking video from coast guard: abandoning a 40 ft. Tri because of damaged sails.

[Travis McGee]

Nice boat to throw away. Any way you cut it.

Once you light off that EPIRB, folks, and the USCG rescue swimmer arrives from the helo, you are probably going to abandon your ride. They don't make house calls/boat calls to hold your hand or give you advice or new sails. They come out to rescue human bodies, not boats.

Personally, I ain't leaving my ride (or lighting off the EPIRBs) until I have to swim up to the light. But that's me. YMMV.

(And we been in some nasty, scary $#!+, just like most of you.)

[captlloyd]

Ah, the old saying comes to mind. ''Most boats can take a lot more than their owners''.

[dakno]

No one has seemed to notice. The tri in question had 2 outboards. In those seas I doubt that you could make any headway with those motors.

[Chris in Hawaii]

So few of these magnificent tris left. Only 21 produced. I have #21 and she is an excellent sailing machine. Ive spoken to this skipper and he had just purchased the tri. Poor judgement to run offshore in the winter. Should have taken the ICW south. They abandoned because they had a child aboard and did not want to get outside of helicopter range after losing their drogue. This was a wicked storm that should have been foreseen. This wasn't the only boat abandoned in this particular storm.