Imagine getting worked in a hole, but it's the size of an island and you are on a 38' sailboat that's just surfed up the face of a monster wave; road it out to an eddy-line; where it flipped you ... and you crash against the rocks and five of your buddies are now dead.

A survivor wrote-up a posting of what happened on Sailing Anarchy... just like Professor Paddle, but national and bigger; but similar.

http://www.sailinganarchy.com/index_page1.php

Newspaper Article
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/17/local/la-me-yacht-deaths-20120417

Imagine getting "pitch-pulled" on the rocks...
when a sailor's weight is shifted incorrectly or the fore of the boat digs into a wave, causing the front of the boat to stop while the back continues to move forward. Pyles said that this often results in the sailor being thrust through the air about 20 feet.

They've been recording "Monster Waves", a new one that reached 95'
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,408953,00.html

No doubt-
But isn't the term "pitch poled"? , like, planting a pole? That's what I always thought. Happens to kayaks, too, but obviously its (usually) not nearly as catactrophic.