Mark, is it possible the mast was hitting the bottom? All it takes is two inches in the mud,and that beast is ANCHORED. I can also tell you two people on the stern of a H20 (also with flat decks) only gets the opposite bow up 2 inches or less; I imagine the Tornado would move even less.

Getting back to the original thread, or at least hijacking it in a different direction, I was amused that someone on another forum sugested we required handheld VHFs as the normal ones don't work when wet. Great idea; now I can get rid of that 12V car battery and the whip antenna, but I will miss the handset on the cord :-) Seriously, we didn't require one in the past because we were trying to limit costs. Now that everyone has a fancy GPS and a cell phone, should we require a handheld radio (instead of our current policy of a radio OR cellphone)? Seems a relatively small cost; heck, our late registration fee this year would have paid for a cheap one.