Hey Steve,

...attempting to be towed uphill, offshore, in 25+ knots of breeze, the snatching loads could be HUGE... Crazy to even consider towing in those conditions from deck cleats alone, some sort of bridle around the hull, or using the primary winches would be the only way to go, IMHO... A boat of that type, I wonder whether they even had any suitable nylon rope aboard to configure a towing bridle with sufficient elasticity, even their anchor rode is probably Vectran, or PBO, or some such shit...

Of the couple of million dollar globe globe-girdling BOTYs that I have sailed, their bow cleats would have been gone in a flash in that scenario - especially those sexy folding cleats that have become so popular on a lot of the Euro Trash out there nowadays, those things are a joke...

As always, there might be more to this story than what the initial reports indicate, but based on what I've read so far, it absolutely boggles the mind the crew gave up on this one so quickly... Chances are, the owner was probably already planning his next boat, anyway... LOL!

best regards,

Jon