...but I think an insurance company on the hook for a loss somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 - 700K might take note of such discrepancies, and I'm guessing that possibility is why those supposed excerpts from the skipper's "official insurance report" were taken down from their website...

As for the cascading failure scenario, well... I've experienced my share of those over the years, you might be surprised at how innocuous or unrelated some of their origins can turn out to be, in hindsight... (grin)

I don't think the loss of the jib as a possible contributor to this one is a stretch, at all... Charlie made it quite clear in his account, that after the sheet parted and they had to furl the jib, they had to lock the helm off hard to port to counter the excessive weather helm created by the unbalanced sail plan of a double-reefed main alone, and to keep the boat from rounding up... Seems to me, with the rudders locked hard over, they became far more vulnerable to the damage that resulted from the wave strike, and the boat being driven back upon them, than they would have been in a more normal orientation if the boat had been sailing with a more balanced sail plan, and less weather helm... So, I don't see it as much of a stretch at all, to suggest that the loss of the use of the jib might be one of the first of the dominoes to have fallen in this instance...