Members of the sailing community were stunned by news of the accident in Dublin Bay early yesterday morning.
In the seaside town of Skerries, Mr Cathal Coffey, commodore of the local sailing club, of which the Styles brothers were life-long members, said everyone was "devastated".
Although neither of the brothers lived in Skerries, they spent a lot of time there. It's a small, welcoming town, the kind where neighbours look out for each other and community spirit still thrives.
"They were very well known," said Mr Coffey. The brothers had been sailing since they were children and were both experienced sailors.
A member of the club said he believed the brothers had bought the 30-foot fibreglass yacht, which they berthed in Malahide, just last year. "There's huge grief here at the moment."
Staff at the Dublin Port Company were also hard hit by the accident, the first loss of life since three people died in the bay following a collision between a German merchant ship, the Haselwerder, and the MV Kilkenny in 1991.
The Dublin Port pilot who was transported out to the Blue- bird before the collision occurred just before 3 a.m. was said to have been very shaken. He had seen the yacht before the accident, harbour master Capt Bob Wiltshire confirmed.
He said there were no further details about precisely what happened and to speculate on them would be to pre-empt the proposed investigation by the Dublin Port Company.
It was a grey day in Dublin Bay yesterday as the search for the missing man continued.
Only a small, white buoy marked the spot where the Debonaire went down as the five friends returned from an evening watching the Skyfest fireworks spectacular over Dublin city.
A helicopter passed overhead as a tug carried media personnel to the scene. Small boats carrying rescue staff darted around the immediate area.
Dublin Port was, as one staff member said, effectively a busy industrial estate. A queue of huge ferries, most of them carrying cargo, tailed back across the bay, delayed in their progress due to the tragic events. Commercial traffic in Dublin Port will not return to normal for three or four days, according to the company.
The protocols for marine traffic are as strict as those for aircraft or cars.
Yesterday, ferries negotiated channels and "roundabouts" at sea, sometimes appearing to pass within feet of each other. Not far from the buoy marking the spot where the yacht rests were the shallower waters along the Bull Wall.
The operation to lift the yacht from the waters may start as early as today.