[arbarnhart]

Don,

I can give you one answer from the small boat perspective. I don't know if my boat can be turtled (never seen a report of it), but similar ones can. I have postive flotation, which means the boat won't sink, but doesn't guarantee which way the stick will be pointing if I got rolled by a big wave. Yes, I know the tether should be releasable under tension, but I would still prefer that it would be possible to reach the surface first. I thought the idea of a tether was to keep you with the boat. BTW, I am not planning to sail under conditions where rolling is much of a possibility; this is largely blue sky thinking.