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If the sailboat is Kerry's Scaramouche, sink it!
Lot of folks don't carry standard navigation gear any more and have no idea how to use a sextant or a chart, or even take a bearing.
And modern diesel engines have all the electronic ignition, metering, etc. and will be knocked out cold by a good jolt of lightning.
I read about a family back in the 80s who had a very near run thing while in the Agulhas Current on the SE coast of South Africa. Bad front, very bad seas, lightning strike, did keep their engine running but had to zig-zag back and forth between the breakers and the edge of the current until daylight. If they'd lost their engine they would never have been heard from again.
If just the main sail was knocked out, but the mast was in place, they should have been just fine using either a smaller sail on the main mast or a jib up front. If the mast was gone, just a small jib would have sufficed to let them limp home.
And they definitely should have had something other than a GPS, either celestial navigation knowledge or just a compass and mechanical knotmeter (tow behind type) so that they could plot their position with dead reckoning.
Now that I would like to see. I imagine Lockheed would be fascinated by this new capability as well.
Journalists...what a bunch of maroons.