From Scuttlebut and Sailing Anarchy

An experienced sailor was ejected in a round up and managed to survive in open ocean following resuce by another race boat.

Here is a statement on tether's

From Roger Marshall:
Interesting read on the Santa Barbara race overboard scenario. The ladies were very fortunate. Readers might want to be aware of some research I did a couple of years ago for my book Rough Weather Seamanship. We towed a swimmer on a lifejacket harness at various speeds and found that at speeds over 4 knots the swimmer can barely keep his/her head above water. At six to eight knots the bow wave created by the person came over his head and he had great difficulty breathing (we stopped the test at this point!). At this same speed the drag of a person in foul weather gear is so high that two crew could not drag that person up to the boat and out of the water. When a boat is sailing at twelve to sixteen knots, it will be almost impossible to get a person back aboard. This leads to two conclusions, first, use lifejackets without a harnesses for high speed sailing or end jacklines far enough forward that, should a person go overboard, they can still hold onto the rail. If they end up a full tether length behind the boat, they may be drowned before the boat can be stopped.