See, had they been out in a boardless boat we may not be having this discussion.

Viva le G-Cat

I'd say that in those conditions I would definately want more than a cell phone and a pack of flares. An EPIRB (or better yet, GPIRB) would have been a much better idea! Along with some food and water in a water-tight bag.

My friend often sailed his Prindle 18 in heavy-weather conditions- he didn't want to leave the beach if he couldn't fly a hull. One day he went out with two girls on his boat in a stiff blow (20s). He capsized during a tack, as the boat went up a wave, both girls (wearing thongs, and having applied sunscreen to their bottoms) slid to the back of the boat. The wind caught the trampoline and it flipped over backwards, then settled to the normal capsize position. The girls grabbed ahold of the stern of the boat so it couldn't swing into the wind and it turned turtle. Despite all their efforts, the three of them could not bring it out of this position. The water was just under 30' deep, and the mast pounded into the bottom during each wave trough. The mast eventually snapped and they were left to drifting in off-shore winds. He unpinned the shrounds and pulled what he could to the surface, managing to salvage the jib. They had only two life-jackets, which the girls wore, and wrapped themselves up in the jib to keep out of the wind and share body-heat. None of them had told anyone they were going out sailing, and two days later a police officer noticed that his car and trailer had not moved since the day of the storm, and called the Coast Guard. They found them later that day, 22 miles offshore, and plucked them out of the sea.

He must have been in his mid-late 30s when this happened, and had been sailing since he was 14 years old. He carried insurance on his boat and used it to buy a P-19 which he sails to this day, albeit more conservatively and with a cooler/bag containing plenty of water, juice, and snacks (crackers and such). He told me the most amazing thing about his ordeal was the beauty of the sky at night- he never knew you could see so many stars.