When I used to teach sailing in my youth and early 20s, down in Salcombe, we were taking (on behalf of the owner / man with thick wallet) a small racing yacht (38 ft or something) for rig trails, going out towards Portsmouth about 8 or 9 nm out at sea and came across a couple in a boat rather like that. Flat bottom skiff type thing. They had a small sail on a jury rigged pole mast and a seagull o/b ...but an absence of petrol. Sounds funny, but they had been out all night and an offshore wind had taken them well out to sea and they had used all the juice trying to beat back against the wind and tide. No flares, no provisions, no lights (really scary at night!) no radio (this was pre mobiles), one life jacket which the shivering wet girl was wearing - and heading for the Atlantic --- if they made it that far across the shipping lanes at night.
We stood by and waited for Salcombe lifeboat to turn up. Everyone who sails a lot has seen this kind of stuff.