Gogarty wrote:

The vessel looks totally shattered from the deck line up. She must
have been swept.

Swept doesn't do that kind of damage. A boat of the quality that one
appears to be would have survived a lot of sweeping.

What kills boats in these latitudes and waves of this size (probably 20 feet
since he said 40) is being dropped off the steep face of ones that are
nearly breaking. Imagine your boat picked up by a crane 15 - 20 feet and
rolled so the masts are pointed downwards. Then just let it go. That's the
kind of impact we're talking about. The rig seldom survives and the major
damage is always on the downward side.

People will probably respond that they have been out in 20 foot seas many
times and nothing like this happend. It's the shape of big wave trains
running in wide open water with even bigger swells under them that is more
dangerous than just the height. If most of the waves he was in were 20
feet, the one that took his rig out still could have been over 40.

--
Roger Long