Even a simple web search will turn up a significant number of ships, many quite small, that did not sink after being abandoned and were found weeks or months later floating about... The problem for the people on board is panic... Once that happens they make bad decisions... Panic is a real problem under extreme physical and mental circumstances... Military, police, fire, etc. groups, combat this with extensive situation training so that the person is strongly programmed to do A and not do B when things go bad... Most of us civilian boaters are unwilling to do boot camp and crawl under barbed wire, stand in cold water all night, etc., in order to retrain our brains... Our only hope is to do extensive reading on accidents at sea, think about these situations, and to actually write up a plan book for handling situations, i.e. MOB, dismasted, rolled, holed, fire, etc... Not that you will have time to read the book during an incident but having considered, planned, and written it down makes it more likely that you will follow the plan than not... Some of the things I have learned in reading these forums is the need to have cabinets and equipment firmly bolted (not screwed) to the ship and to have strong, positive latch systems on the doors and drawers, no open shelving, seat cushions velcro restrained, and a number of other items... I can only hope that planning and good decision making in calm circumstances will help me avoid the situation of total panic in bad times... denny --------------------------------- Have a burning question? Go to Yahoo! Answers and get answers from real people who know.