I've that about this plenty when daydreaming about taking big voyages in little boats. I think the tether would have to be long enough to allow you to double back to that ladder, now matter what. The worst case scenario would be falling through the bow pulpit (unlikely as it is) then having to get back to the stern. With a midship attachment, that's what, 25 feet?!? If you're concerned about safety, consider also the water temperature and your own resistance to hypothermia. I'm thin and get cold fast, so I often wear a wetsuit when I sail in the wintertime. This should buy me tens of minutes to get to safety. Hopefully my diminishing grip strength will be enough to pull me back into the boat... Steve Tyree, P-15 In a message dated 2/21/2004 9:03:33 PM Central Standard Time, jonmartin666@msn.com writes: All of this talk about safety has got me to thinking about using a harness and tether on my M15, since I sail alone a lot of the time. It appears that the tethers I've looked at are around six feet long. I'm thinking that the attachment point should be on the stern,so that in the event that one did go overboard one could end up behind the boat and use the stern ladder to get back in. My initial thought was on the teak strip that the cb pennant comes through...but, with only six feet of tether, one would end up being dragged along the side of the boat, and trying to board over the side , most likely in rough weather. I haven't tried boarding over the side by myself, as I doubt I'd make it!! The first thing I did when I got my boat was to install a transom mounted ladder - it does work! What are people's thoughts? Jon in Walla Walla