I know nothing about this event, or anyone involved, BUT...

Cough... cough... RRS 4 anyone? cough... cough...

Do you know something in this article that we don't? I don't see any mention of the number of safety boats, what the wind conditions were (other than mention of "large waves"), etc.

This was a North American championship. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they had boats on the water, and that the competitors were pretty good.

Sometimes, bad things happen to good people (the "victim" won the event), and no one is close by to help. Fortunately, there was another competitor who jumped in, and another boat to help get them ashore.

EDIT: BTW, the "victim" was 18, technically not a "kid" (depends who you ask)...

I highly doubt canceling the event was an option.

As for the PFD, you can't fix stupid, altough in this case, it appears to have fixed itself. Interestingly, the NOR specified that PFDs would be required if code flag Y was flown. That's one of my least favorite things to put on the RC.

Definitely not something that you'd want on a resume though...

Mike