Only questions are; were they properly equipped and how well did the evac. go ?
The company is well established and conducts offshore training, and competes in the Fastnet, so the kit will have been up to spec.
Weather reported as F9 strong gale, which should not be a problem for a boat that size, but evac. could be tricky. One report said the hull was seen, capsized. Worse case scenario is a rapid capsize, but the liferaft should have been set up for deployment even if this happened.
After the 1979 Fastnet rece, it was clear that sailors who stayed with their yachts stood a better chance of suvival than those who took to their liferafts. THe advice from then on was 'only ever step up into a liferaft'.
This is so true. As a sailor who has been at sea in F9 (and greater) the last place you want to be is in one off those life rafts unless you absolutely have to. The things are bad enough when you do your training in smooth water let alone big seas.
Not sure about fastnet, but in Aus any ocean racing under the umbrella of yachting australia requires you to carry a personal epirb. For the sake of $500 or so they are cheap insurance.