Updated: Coast Guard Calls Off Search for Missing NFL Players

I heard them say on ESPNews that the boat they were in was a 21footer...and was almost unsinkable. Let's hope they find them soon. I hate seeing stuff like this happen, i'm sure they will turn up sooner or later.

Damn, here's to hoping.

From my experience on the water I'd say the boat has either flipped, filled with warter, or they have lost total power. The reason I say that is I would hope that the boat had a working VHF radio and if they where simply lost they would have had radio contact with them. There is also a chance they don't have a VHF radio on the boat but that would be just crazy. I personaly have two VHF radios. One is a mounted VHF (which if the boat flips on takes on alot of water is useless) and the other is a hand held which floats and is water proof. Both of my VHF radios have a distress button which is pretty standard and when activated sends a signal to all boats, CG, etc... with our location. The reason for the hand held is if the boat sinks I have a back up. The News said it was a foam filled boat so the boat should not sink which is really the only good news so far from this story and could be what saves their life.

Hoping for the very best outcome. Unfortunately, most all of these stories end in tragedy.

Hoping for the very best outcome. Unfortunately, most all of these stories end in tragedy.
Well the good news is that unlike our area hypertherma (spelling) should not be an issue in the warm golf waters.

In a wierd kind of way I hope that they ended up in Cuba or something and they are still alive. At least then there is a possibility of return.

FD, I really don't know anything about boating-it sounds like you do, so let me ask you with all of the hi-tech locating tools (GPS, sonar and any others), and assuming these guys weren't sparing any expense, what ways can they search for them? It seems like on land, with a cell phone and permission, the government, or "google lattitude", can find locations pretty quickly nowadays. Anything like that for sea-faring vessels?

FD, I really don't know anything about boating-it sounds like you do, so let me ask you with all of the hi-tech locating tools (GPS, sonar and any others), and assuming these guys weren't sparing any expense, what ways can they search for them? It seems like on land, with a cell phone and permission, the government, or "google lattitude", can find locations pretty quickly nowadays. Anything like that for sea-faring vessels?

Cell phones are pretty useless as we can loose singnals while we can still see land. The best thing on the water is an epirb which is manditory on just about all boats except for personaly used boats. If they had an epirb on the boat the coast guard would have located them pretty quick They send out a single that is picked up by anyone who has radar on and shows up as a distress signal. Next would be a VHF radio which most of them now days have a distress button which gives out a distress over the radio with you location. The problem with the VHF is that its is only good for about 10 to 20 miles so anyone within that distance would pickup the distress signal over their radio. They also have hand held VHF radios now with GPS tracking but that is pretty new and only one company makes them. I just got one last week to have as a back up unit and it also gives you extra comunication if the boat sinks taking the boats VHF down with it. I just went over to a boating site and from what I read on a thread there its not looking to good for these guys. I din't know but the waters there are around 60 deg. and the winds kicked up 10 to 13 foot seas over night.

sad to hear, but thanks for the info.

the vhf and uhf radios i work with go a lot farther than 20 miles, but i'm not sure they're available commercial... aircraft avionics though, and the total system weight/size is pretty tiny.