Wow, that H16 vid represents a first rate example of what NOT to do. IMO, they were very lucky that there was a rescue boat nearby that was able to find the crew and get them back together.

They should not have been out there. It was clear right from the beginning of the vid that the crew was not comfortable/experienced in those conditions. After the initial pitchpole, the crew was fumbling around on the sail, just waiting to get stuck if the boat turned turtle. It also seemed like the skipper was probably not prepared for the boat to take off after he righted it and climbed abord - he should have made sure that the boat was turned head to wind, that the rudders were locked down, and that the sheets were free before righting. He also should have made it very clear to the crew to grab the dolphin striker and not let go when the boat popped up. Maybe he wasn't expecting the boat to come up so quickly.

Once the skipper takes off on his own he is totally out of control because the tiller arms are flipped the wrong way. Once he corrects that and gybes back to the crew, his jib gets wrapped and then he's totally screwed because the jib is uncontrollable at that point, so he can't go upwind & can't tack. The only thing he can do is beam reach, gybe, and pitchpole. After the second pitchpole, he should have realized that it was absolutely necessary to un-wrap the jib before righting the boat. But it definitely looked like he was in panic mode after his crew separated. Had he cleared the jib, he would have been able to, at the very least, turn the boat upwind, go hove-to, and get himself collected.

Instead, what he does is continue to keep trying to sail the boat, pitchpole several more times, tire himself out, and continue to sail farther away from his crew. When the downhaul and gooseneck come apart, it's all over. Sailing upwind would have been totally impossible.

I would not say they made it through. They were rescued and they were just plain lucky.

sm