But I see a lot of redundancy. Of course, in that kind of fishery, in those waters, you don't want to go barefootin'. There's also a lot of fishfinding and bottom mapping gear a yacht wouldn't need. And in a boat that size, that expensive, going cheap makes no sense. You go top of the line all over. You can get killed out there. There was a lot of room on that bridge to use all that equipment, too. Yachts are cramped.

An offshore sailer would carry a GPS, one with digital charts, and a cheap handheld as backup, and a depth finder. Wind speed and direction gear and a log (speed through the water gauge). Two good mag compasses, of course, and a VHF radio (line-of-sight only). If it planned to go across oceans, it would also probably have an SSB radio
(like a short-wave and maybe a satellite phone) and a display/plotter for weather maps. A radar would probably be aboard, (I wonder if it was down, or simply no one thought to look at it). On my trips, one of the boats had radar, and it is useful for missing obstructions and other ships, and fog navigation in crowded harbors. I would imagine race rules would require some kind of emergency locator beacon, like an EPIRB. It tells an earth satellite where you are and puts out a signal, but you have to turn it on and keep it afloat.

The GPS tracker mentioned in the article seems like a handy piece of equipment. It's new to me, but I imagine anything that useful will soon be on all blue-water boats, if it isn't already.

It must also be kept in mind Aegean was part of a race, and in that kind of competition other boats are nearby, but usually out of sight and out of touch with each other (to not give away their position). Still, they all monitor the emergency channel). You're not really alone.

Before GPS, things like crab traps were placed in clusters miles across, and marked with flags and strobes. Once you found one, you could find the others easily. Today, with GPS and 5 meter accuracy, you can put them anywhere you like.

The most dangerous hazards to blue water yachts are getting run over by merchantmen (they are notorious for putting on the autopilot and leaving the bridge unmanned to avoid paying their crews overtime); and running into shipping containers that have washed overboard from container ships). The damned things float flush with the water surface and are impossible to see, even in broad daylight. They can sink a yacht in seconds.

Solo sailors have to sleep sometime, so they usually engage the self-steering gear. But often, even with several crew on board, no one is on lookout. In rough weather they may heave-to and go below to rest, a maneuver in which the boat rides the waves safely with its sails balanced against its rudder, (or ride to a sea-anchor), but doesn't actually go anywhere. And of course, in a fog, they are vulnerable to collision.

On a yacht, there are two types of self-steering. One is an electric autopilot, you set it on a certain compass course and it will point the ship in that direction, but if the wind changes the sails could go aback, so it is of limited usefulness. Mostly it is set temporarily while you go below for a dump, to do some chartwork, or to make a sandwich.

Wind vanes are strictly mechanical devices that sense the wind with a vane, and use the force on a small second rudder to turn the main rudder if the ship wanders off the wind. It is an elaborate device with chains, pulleys and gears, and it steers relative to the wind rather than a compass. If the wind changes direction, the self-steerer will alter course to follow it, sending you off into Jacundaville while you sleep below.

As you can imagine, most sailboats carry neither.