Perhaps operator error

I want to comment on the recent tragic sinking of a 67-foot vessel off the Dungeness Point (Dungeness Spit).

First, I have a background of over 40 years of cruising from southern Mexico to Alaska. (Partly in wooden boats.) There was no mention in news articles in the Peninsula Daily News or the Sequim Gazette that the incident could have been “weather-related.” I vividly recall that a very strong east wind was blowing that day. And the following day it was flat calm.

Had the skipper of the vessel checked the marine weather forecast for the time he intended to leave John Wayne Marina?

I resent, and strongly disagree, with the comment, “This was an old wooden yacht and maybe it was just old and tired.” The yacht was built in 1975. In 1965, I had a 50-foot wooden yacht built and it has endured the ravages of seas from Mexico to Alaska. And today, that boat is as sound as a dollar.

What were boats made of before fiberglass, steel and aluminum? Wood, of course. The Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend would likely comment. Wood simply does not just get “tired.”

Bud Critchfield,

Sequim