What can we learn from this ?

1) People will sensationalise the event to make a story about it.
2) Catamarans DO capsize. The issue of crew separation is a serious one. It prevents the crew who is still with the boat from being able to right it, and the other crew who is swimming may not be able to catch up to the boat, or may be unable to do so due to concussion. This has happened many times, sometimes with fairly serious consequences.
This occurred in the Malawi 500, a race from South to North on Lake Malawi. It can get pretty nasty even on the lake, some 700km long body of water. An I-20 skipper was separated from the boat leaving his son on the boat, who was unable to right the boat, and the skipper had to wait until after dark before using his flares. It took them a good few hours to locate him, after 9pm I believe. He was less than 500 metres from the boat. The good news is that they did find him, and the water wasn`t so cold, or hypothermia could have become an issue.

So how to prevent this ? I read a post a while ago on the subject of tethering yourself to the boat by running the mainsheet through a climbing caribener, but I think that could become dangerous in some instances, like being trapped under the boat. Perhaps a Quick-release caribener would work, such as those used in paragliding.
I`ve been separated from my boat sailing solo, and had to swim like mad to just manage to catch the tip of the mast, and could barely hang on, the trampoline makes quite an effective sail. If I`d missed the mast the boat would have been gone, it was going much faster than I could swim.

On the first point, I`m going to assume the following :
- The race organisers would have required the necessary safety equipment to be carried by all competitors.
- The competitors concerned did have those, ie flares etc.
- They had not yet reached the situation where either of them believed they required the use of them, or they would have used them.
- A passing yacht / powerboat saw them & offered assistance, which, given the circumstances, was fortunate since a crew member was injured, and the skipper may not have been able to catch up to the boat, in which case the crew would probably have used his flares, so the situation could have become serious.

We need to accept that our sport does carry some risks, and come up with ways to minimise those risks if possible, We wear PDF`s, carry flares etc, sometimes we could do more to prevent a situatuion, but until we become aware of the potential of danger, we don`t think of these things.
Anyone else have any comment on how to prevent crew separation, please advise ?

Cheers
Steve