in three years of cruising I know of four people who have gone over the side. Two were recovered by their wives, one had a harness and was able to wake his wife up by pounding on the hull and the forth was lost with his boat on the rocks. Even with a %75 recovery rate, it's the down side of cruising. It makes you want to use a harness. I'll bet with a larger sample the recovery rate would go way down. These people were long term, full time cruisers. I would suspect that weekend cruisers would not be half as lucky.