yacht ashore Seaford

Glad to see the crew are safe. Nasty place to finish up.
I can't believe they were anchored anywhere near there and dragged. More to it I reckon.
 
That looks like a shockingly unforgiving place to have trouble.

Thursday was a pleasant sunny day with light breeze, maybe a delivery trip with the new owner gone wrong as the weather turned overnight.

There's a long list of sold boats that have left MYC and not made it past the Forts a couple of miles away, the most recent last Saturday. You don't hear about these as they only hit the mud and get off unscathed when the tide returns.
 
The temptation in Seaford Bay is to anchor at the Eastern end hoping to get some lee from Seaford Head, instead of further West towards Newhaven. Unfortunately the bottom at the Eastern end close to the Cliffs is a thin a layer of gravel/sand over hard slippery chalk, while to the West it is predominantly sand/gravel bottom although you lose what little lee given by the Head. Easterly winds like the tide, tend to scour into the Bay round the Head. In general Seaford Bay is a fine weather short term anchorage at best in my opinion.
I used to anchor there often when Newhaven was my home port, but usually only to get squared away, rig fenders etc: (single handed) before entering the Newhaven River after a voyage. I've anchored there in thick fog over night too, waiting for it to lift, but always just a few cables from Newhaven East Pier. I'm glad to hear they got safely ashore.
 
That looks like a shockingly unforgiving place to have trouble.

Thursday was a pleasant sunny day with light breeze, maybe a delivery trip with the new owner gone wrong as the weather turned overnight.

There's a long list of sold boats that have left MYC and not made it past the Forts a couple of miles away, the most recent last Saturday. You don't hear about these as they only hit the mud and get off unscathed when the tide returns.
Got to disagree with your weather assessment. Wind picked up significantly late afternoon to 20 knots plus SW in Hove, I'm sure that stretch would have been a bad place to anchor at least early evening.
 
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