WOW this is amazing,I am new here but i have been trying to figure this whole thing out for sometime (refering to falling off the boat while solo sailing) I have tried to very hard to figure out where my boat would go if I fell off for ANY reason, i do this by letting go off the tiller and various angles to the wind, so my results are never the same, but one thing for sure is if im not headed up my boat will keep sailing without me on it... and at quite a rapid rate even in lite winds. this really concerns me, and often times keeps me from "going on the wire" as im concearned about losing my boat. you see I sail in a logoon surrounded on one side by white beaches, but the other side is coral reef the two sides paralelle each other, so if i fall off, my boat is either going to beach (COOL) or going to the reef (VERY VERY NOT COOL), so depending on my tack i either feel comfortable or I dont.. I HATE IT! I too keep my mainsheet in my hand at all times as the wind here in Saipan is VERY gusty and shifty, Im not sure if my rudders are set correctly, but i do know that when the kick up the boat goes to wind, so I always imagine if I fall off alls i need to do is grab one rudder on the way down and my boat would go to wind, but whats always on my mind is what if I miss the rudder,
however I want to thank you all for contributing to this thread, I actually thought that I WAS THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD WITH THIS FEAR, and it is very conforting to know that there are other people out there contimplating the same problem that I have..thank you and I look very forward to receiveng your ideas and solutions to our fear of falling off the boat and crashing your boat into a reef or worse yet a small boat filled with people..
thank you
regards,
Darrell