Solo, a
radio remote to the
steering...awesome. If you need to sail an anchor out. (or motor) . Bending on
sails in strong and fickle winds. I am not a gadget for gadget sake person. It has to have a reason to complicate my life. If you go over the life lines and the
boat is pounding away, making it impossible for you to pull yourself back over then perhaps th ability to slow the boat down may help. A little story...
Beautiful day, boat cranking along. Young son playing with body board over side. The board was strapped onto his wrist and he was "surfing" Placing his feet on the board and having fun. I was not that happy. After quite some time I heard a yell. The board had "nosed down" turned into a parachute anchor or a "board" to my
fishing friends. It took all my strength to drag that kid back up on
deck.....AFTER i had kicked the
rudder across....No he did not go over but the force of the
water was enormous.
The point. If something as small as a body board creates a force to much to deal with imagine a full body. If you went over and the boat was running under auto tiller (and you had a harness and life line on) without the ability to bring the boat to
head, I doubt you would be able to get back on board.
The solution is to have another person on board. Problem is , if you are doing turn about watches, you may have to keep your
head above
water for 4 hours.
In this case a simple
alarm may save a life.
Like any gadget it should not be trusted . It should be tested regularly. It should not be used as an excuse for not maintaining good practices.