5 rescued from vessel in trouble off north cape

Ignorance might not be an excuse but it doesn’t automatically lead to disaster - otherwise there would be far fewer people alive in this planet today if ignorance guaranteed doom!

There is also the element of luck (or the converse aspect of risk).

Again, I’m just cautioning that not everything that goes wrong in the world can or should lead to a tightening of regulations as a response. There’s always going to be some risk in activities like this.

From some of the family statements it sounds like the charter guests were well aware of the risks they faced and even had some doubts about the weather?

Personally I would never go on one of these trips. Like I would never do another jet boat ride in NZ. I did one once and for my tastes it was well beyond ‘thrill-seeking’ and firmly into the territory of ‘insane’. Hence I’d never do one again because I reckon they are all accidents waiting to happen!

I'm detecting some "one-eyed-ness" and a strong animosity towards fisho's and launches from Fuzzy and Aqua here.

It may be that the boat design wasn't fit for the sea conditions encountered, but I think Fogg has a very good point that it is highly likely some other minor events on the boat contributed to the overall situation. Almost all accidents are an accumulation of minor events, ref Domino Theory.

This notion that yachts are safer and yachties are somehow superior is twaddlebollocks. I'll counter the arguement with these facts:
1) What happened to Django? J boat returning from the Fiji race, foundered off North Cape. Weather was so bad helo's couldn't fly, and the Navy had to scramble an offshore patrol boat from Devonport. 3 people rescued in very dramatic fashion. Same piece of sea.
2) What happened to the Essence? Capable world cruising yacht with highly experinced skipper and crew, foundered just south of here, while different area, basically the same conditions and circumstances, NE blow, coming onto soundings while approaching the northland coast. 1 fatality.
3) What happened to Rantan 2? Premier NZ race boat crossing the Pacific to do the TransPac, a blue water race from San Fran to Hawaii. Foundered.
4) an anonymous high profile race boat on the Auckland scene (named after a trashy TV series), of a common production boat design, had its bulk heads pop out, and lost its steering quadrant on a return from a Fiji race. Crew had the liferaft ready to go. Crew report the only way the managed to avoid a broach and 360 roll was to engage the independent autopilot while they fixed the steering
5) another anonymous high profile Auckland race boat, full carbon, had to bail from the Noumea race when they found the carbon staunchions falling off, as the whole boat had turned into a battery and the carbon structure was the anode.
6) How many fully spec'ed, professionally run raceboats sunk in the 2006 Sydney Hobart?

I think there is zero difference in the design and structural elements of launches v yachts when it comes to outcomes in extreme weather. The big difference in all of the examples above is the training of the crew, being advanced sea survival being mandatory, and the life saving equipment they take, full spec life jackets, PLB's, lights, face shields, dry suits / survival suits.

Given the shear number of fishos and fishing boats in NZ, easily outnumber yachts 10 to 1, possibly 20 to 1, it would be fairly easy on a per capita basis to say fishing boats are safer than yachts. Certainly given the total hours and numbers of trips these fishing charters do, I would argue the incident race is low. The problem is the number of fatalities every time something goes wrong...

yes, but this is sailing site, so we must only have a sailing positive comments   Plus we have expert boat designers and armchair experts.  Lets not remember the Fastnet, Sydney hobart, and Queens Birthday storm etc.

Don't get too carried away Fuzzyduck. Seem to recall several lives lost in so called well found modern yachts not that long ago in the Sydney to Hobart.

I also think there will be some lessons learned about the boat, not its basic design, which I know from its WA crayfishing origins is very sound, but rather the modifications with that raised cabin and enclosed flybridge. These mods will have affected windage/stability and unlikely to have been engineered to withstand the force of a heavy breaking sea.
If you have read Sebastion Junger's book "Perfect Storm" one of the issues identified with the Andrea Gael was that there had been superstructure modifications which would have reduced her stability. Of course the actual reason for her foundering is unknown, all is conjecture.