On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 00:06:45 GMT, "Benning Wentworth"
wrote:

Kinda hard to imagine how a yacht so well equipped and a ship could collide.

Yes. I envision it as an "auto pilot" collision, i.e., two boats in
the middle of the night, going in more or less opposite directions,
both running on auto pilot, and neither boat paying real close
attention to the radar or look out.

The sailboat only had three people aboard. The cook, who was killed,
was probably below. Of the other two, it is possible that only one
was on watch, both driving and navigating. We sometimes run our boat
that way but usually only in offshore conditions. Long Island Sound
is a bit crowded for that in my opinion.