This is a topic that I think a lot about. I'm pretty uncomfortable with the idea of strapping myself to a boat that could flip completely upside down. I have also been caught unbalanced by a wave before and knocked off the boat but was fortunately able to hang onto the spin sheet.

When I'm sailing distance races, unless it's extremely light, I usually hook into my trapeze dogbone whether or not I intend to trapeze. The Tybee500 race management requires us to carry a teather with enough line to go around circumference of the boat's width one time. Our Astral Bouyancy life vests have a towstrap designed for kayaking with a quick release mechanism. Last year, we tied our tethers to this tow system with the thought that if we needed to use it, we could get loose of the tether quickly if we needed.

The tethered throwable is an excellent idea and something I'll probably ad to our inventory too...or maybe I can clip the throwable we already carry on the boat to my personal tether.

Another thing that I've thought about - and seen in action in last year's Tybee, was to carry a VHF radio not on the boat but on each person. If you fall off, the radio on the boat doesn't do you much good. If you both fall off, the radio on the boat is useless.