tried to go into Puerto Platta in the DR at night without a chart. We were suppose to go in together in the morning but we got separated in the Windward Passage between Haiti and Cuba and he decided to go in with the help of someone in the harbor talking him in. He hit the reef right under the old Spanish fort on the port side of the entrance. He managed to get an anchor down which swung his bow into the waves and most likely saved his boat but the rudder got hammered out of the gudgeon (did I spell that right??) and bent off the port. By the time I arrived he had arranged for a tow off by a big fishing boat that was in the harbor. I got on board and helped throughout the night and it wasn't fun. The fishing boat made three pulls and as soon as the boat overcame it weight resistance it took off like a shot. As soon as it would start to slide across the reef we would radio the fishing boat to stop and we would check for water. Just about the time we got up to speed on the third pull we ran right into a brain coral. That stopped the boat cold and blew the glass out of the picture frames, broke the catches on the galley drawers and tossed the owner's wife across the main salon in a front flip like a rag doll. On that pull the fishing boat had drifted out of position which caused the tow line to drag across the deck and tear a Danforth anchor out of it chocks and over the side. When that happened we promptly ran over it and tore a hole in the side. We eventually got the rudder back on and sailed her to Puerto Rico and patched her up right. So, never go into a harbor at night, never use advise from people you don't know, never go into an unfamiliar port without a chart of the country. The only thing I would have done differently is to connect a snatch block to the main halyard, put a second anchor line in the block and haul it to the top of the mast. I would then put out the second anchor 90 degrees to the first and haul her over to get the keel off of the bottom during the pulls. As I said, it wasn't fun and I would hate to have it happen to anyone.