Reading the thread on whether to trailer the outboard stowed or mounted reminded me of John Vigor's Black Box Theory. Good Old Boat published Vigor's article in which he recounts covering a speech by an American yachtsman. The speech was titled "The Fifth Essential for Successful Yacht Voyages." "I reduced the Fifth Essential to a simple system of accident prevention...every boat possesses an imaginary black box, a sort of bank account in which points are kept. In times of emergency, when there is nothing more to be done in the way of sensible seamanship, the points from your black box can buy your way out of trouble. You have no control over how the points are spent, of course; they withdraw themselves when the time is appropriate. You do have control over how the points get into the box: you earn them. For every seamanlike act you perform, you get a point in the black box." Check the following link for the complete article: http://www.boatus.com/goodoldboat/blackbox.htm Diane Kerr M15 #625 High Barbaree