That "eight foot sailboat" looks like one of those multi-purpose dinghys/rowboat/tenders outfitted with a sailing kit, not a real, purpose-built sailboat.
Design and build a boat for too many purposes, and it may well not do many or even any of them well.
I dont care if it was the best designed 8 foot rag bagger in the world. yesterday was 30mph with gust to 60+ on a 10 ft tide swing. stupid is stupid. no one should have been out there yesterday.
No common sense AT ALL. Blowing 40+ all day and they go out at all and then when I saw the "boat" I was shaking my head. If those were my kids, they'd never see that boat again. They were VERY lucky somone saw them and Gig Harbor came to their rescue.