We were at a race at Lake Cheney with winds of 35 with gusts as high as 50 mph. At the Skipper's meeting the RC suggested anyone with a 16 should seriously consider reefing their main. Which brought lots of testosterone laden chuckles and a "Hey man, you ever try to light a 16 main?". We all laughed and off the beach we go. Before the start of the first race, just trying to be stationary and wait for the other fleet starts a BIG gust hits us and my wife had the jib cleated. So here we go in a slomo blow over we can do nothing about. As we're scooting to the top of the rail I kept telling Lynn to just jump into the main, so I jumped, and she's still up ther fighting it, she manages to turn around, now facing the tramp and the boat's almost on its side, she finally lets go and while sliding on her belly down the tramp her harness hooks into the center lacing, I'm a couple of good hard crawl strokes behind watching her going turtle with the boat, I dive under the tramp (with a life jacket on) to pull the quick pin on that harness, drag her out, hang on the hull with her until she stopped coughing up water, then right the boat, sail to shore (trapped out by necessity of the wind) while she sat on the tramp crying. Praise God the harness had a quick release.

Twenty years later, we now have three beautiful sons that are into cat sailing. Safety devices are wonderful things.

By the way...after righting the boat, I did happen to sail across the starting line, so we would get a DNF instead of a DNS. We went to the beach, reefed the main, and she sat on the tramp, didn't cleat the jib, holding the sheet tight to here chest and letting her arms straighten during gusts and we finished third in second race. Thats's my better half.