I’ve had the good fortune of being rescued twice, a few years apart, by uncapsizable coast guard lifeboats. These were boats with minimal superstructure, reportedly with multiple roll capability. My first time mid nineteen sixties a few miles offshore on Lake Ontario near Fort Niagara NY in my 14 ft wayfarer dinghy after a crossing from Toronto ON. A sudden squall caused a cheap hardware store turnbuckle to fail. Mast went over the side, capsize followed (no mast tip float). Tourists at Fort Niagara called US coast guard, who came out and towed me upside down to the canadian side across the Niagara river. Second time about five years later, off the pacific coast of BC on my way to Bamfield in a 13 ft zodiac when outboard motor shaft broke at the impeller, stranding me on a rock, waving a lifejacket on a paddle to passing aircraft without success, some 10 Km from port. Eventually, the Lady Rose, a passenger vessel onroute from Bamfield to Tofino spotted me, stopped, radioed Bamfield lifeboat station and stood by to provide the tourists the sight of “a rescue at sea”. Same type of lifeboat as the Fort Niagara one. Both since replaced, Im sure.

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