I have lived at sea for years, climbed in and out of tenders for decades. I've never fallen in. I've capsized. Crashed racing dinghies, but fallen out no. Racing dinghies whilst wearing full wetsuit and harness ok.

Helming Gripster

I sort of "fell in" off matt's f18 several times. Some I was pushed. Some the trapeze line broke. In hobie 16's I've broken trapeze lines too I don't even loose the boat on those though they're so slow you can grab on as you plummet.

Seriously, there are no marinas to speak of in the Pacific. Every where is a trip ashore by dinghy. I've never fallen in - till yesterday. Sunk yes, both in Sam's folding dinghy and "Jesus" Ornen's o'rrible dinghy. As you get older you get incontinent, I've not reached that stage yet, but despite that, my pants are damp. I've reached the age, 34-35 your muscles give up wave a little white flag of surrender and suddenly your in the drink swearing and trying to get the salt water out of your iPod touch.

And yes, if your asking, I was pissed, and carrying phone, camera, and iPod. They've spent the night in a sink full of fresh water and will be drying for a week.

In my defence, the dinghy I fell out of was a very leaky tinny, and half submerged, I had bailed some water out of it, but when I tried to move my weight around to get at the last bit, I rolled it and the stern sunk and over it rolled. Matt's done it before me so at least I'm not alone.

Oh and I've found out why Matt's boat is called "The Grip", its about as stable as my old rs600, and like the 600 it has wings. This gives it a large flat deck. When it heels wildly - which it does, the only way to hang on is to hook an arm over the side to the elbow also know as "The Grip".