It was a huge story and mystery last year. All four were experienced sailors. Even after an extensive investigation, there is no official report as to the cause.
I have my own theory that could only happen with the concomitant convergence of several different factors given that the owner had every known navigation device on board and was probably monitoring all of them at the time.
Their progress was being tracked on SPOT and you can see that the auto-pilot course was set on a direct line from Newport to Ensenada. They were in the cruising class, which allowed an auto-pilot and engine to be used if there's no wind. They have to report how long the engine was running and then points are deducted. (They won this race 4 times in their class.) (The rules have changed because of this accident.)
North Coronado is nothing more than a rock sticking out of the ocean - 100 feet of sheer cliffs across the face. (See photos below.)
If you look at the back of the boat, you can't see it very well, but there's only a knee-high safety line. That is a "feature" of the Hunter - its open access.
They disappeared off the radar and SPOT at 1:30 a.m., which means that they had over 12 hours of drinking (which is what they do on that race). I think that there were 2 crewmen below asleep - one was definitely in the forepeak because of his head injuries - and the other 2 were on watch. One went below to use the head and possibly scrounge up some food and the other decided to relief himself over the back of the boat - something they probably did all the time. He either lost his balance or they were hit by a rogue wave. In either case, he fell overboard. The guy below wouldn't have heard him because you can't hear anything when you're below.
The captain knew that island was there and probably headed straight for it in order to set a new course. The guy who went below would have turned on the lights to see what he was doing. If the lights were on below, it makes it very difficult to see what's in front of you if you're in the cockpit. The captain may even have gone up on deck, because of the light coming from below, to see what he could see it and have fallen off up there.
In either case, they were very close to the island when the captain went overboard and the rest of them didn't know it. Three of them were found in the same area. The captain was to the north. They only found small pieces of the boat. Other boats sailed through the debris field and didn't realize that a boat had broken apart there.
(BTW: These guys belonged to a yacht club that shares facilities with the club I belong to.)
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