Ben-Iesau said that the crew of the ketch did not want to leave their boat, and instead asked to be pulled out. But their boat was stuck on the bottom and they were eventually persuaded to abandon ship.

"They assessed the situation, got the people out of the water and out of the boat," Hubbell said. "About that time, I got over there with some large inflatable fenders, which didn't do any good."

The crew survived intact, as did a cat, which Hubbell said was rescued at the last minute. But the boat was dashed to pieces on the seawall.

Coast GuardCoast Guard response options include both water and air.HOW THEY RESPOND

Roughly 95 percent of all search and rescue cases take place within 20 nautical miles of shore, according to statistics supplied by the National Search and Rescue School, a training facility run by the Coast Guard. Only about 10 percent of the agency's calls result in any type of search.

The responses vary widely. Some involve a simple marine rescue: a boat is dispatched to lend assistance. In the case of the Sea Princess off Massachusetts, for example, rescuers found Picken and his crew mate, Robert F. Wilson, in their raft and brought them safely to shore in less than two hours. Others are more involved. In a case in Hawaii earlier this year, for example, two helicopters and a 110-foot patrol boat were sent to rescue a man after his 12-foot boat began to sink four miles from the coast of Molokai.

Of course, a collision, night rescue or situation involving high winds or rough seas can call for more complicated maneuvers.

Earlier this year, for example, a 47-foot motorized lifeboat was dispatched by the Coast Guard off the coast of New Jersey to help the three-man crew of a 34-foot sailboat that was adrift, its sails torn and its fuel exhausted, according to Coast Guard documents. But the rescue boat–designed specifically to handle rough water–was unable to reach them in 8- to 10-foot seas. Instead, the agency sent a helicopter to lower a rescue swimmer.

Coast GuardLong-range search aircraft include C-130Js."When you pull alongside a boat with one of our boats, there's a potential for damage," said Nyx Cangemi, a Coast Guard spokesman in Atlantic City. "It was the best decision to have the people go into water and hoist them out one by one."

The swimmer boarded the vessel and helped two of the men into the water, where they were then hoisted into the helicopter. The third man and the swimmer were picked up by the rescue boat.

THE COMPLEXITIES OF SEARCH

When search is involved, the decisions become much more complicated, according to Lt. Commander Kendall Garran, who worked as a rescuer in Alaska earlier in her career.

For starters, search involves many more variables, such as where to look based on the last radio transmission, the situation surrounding the distress call, the prevailing weather and other factors.

The target can be very small–a solo sailor in the water or a raft–and so it requires a larger deployment of men and machines.

"The more eyes in the area, the more chances we have to find a person or object," Garran said.

How long a search lasts depends on many factors. "We look at survivability in regards to the temperature of the air, water and a person's will to survive in those kinds of conditions," she said.

One example is the case of Jim Gray, the Microsoft engineer, whose sailboat Tenacious disappeared en route to the Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco Jan. 29. The Coast Guard searched for four days, covering almost 132,000 square miles–an area larger than New Mexico. But neither Gray nor his boat ever turned up.

Searches like these are far more expensive than a standard rescue. Search operations cost $50 million annually, according to Coast Guard records. Though the agency rarely releases cost estimates on individual search efforts (and did not do so on the search for Gray), it did so for one Florida case in which a boater issued a fake Mayday call resulting in a two-day search that got the man prosecuted and convicted.

The cost of the operation was $325,000.