you never know. The first trip out on our Islander we foolishly believed a line of BS given to us by the previous owner regarding the fuel gauge. The diesel started to sputter 3/4ths of the way through the channel out to the lake, by reducing power to an idle I managed to get us through and around the breakwall out of the traffic. When the engine did quit I set the anchor and tried to troubleshoot the situation in a relatively calm and safe area. Once I discovered that it was a matter of being out of fuel and finished cursing the PO, we weighed all of our options and decided to call for a tow back to our club which was roughly 1.5 miles. Yes, it is a sailboat, yes the sails were on and the covers off, but we had never sailed it before. We would have had to cross incoming and outgoing commercial, fishing and recreational traffic in light winds, then tack back and forth in about 150 yards to try and get through the channel. Once into the bay we would have had a relatively easy sail back to the entrance to our club. Once there it requires entry through a narrow entrance, an immediate 90* turn to starboard followed by a 180* turn to port around the breakwall, navigating a narrow fairway lines with large rocks and rusty plate steel to our slip, another 90* turn to starboard and in. Rather than make this unfortunate situation into a bad floating navigation hazard, we used our Towboat US membership. Given the circumstances, I would do the same thing again.