any years ago, I took a girlfriend of mine, Aileen Doherty, who had never sailed before, out for a jolly. There I was leaping from mooring buoy to mainsail halyard to centre plate purchase. It was the latter she noticed and thought she could help with. I had dropped enough plate down for us to leave the mooring without touching bottom and then made up the line again around a – without being surged round the cleat – dropped back instantly, hit the centreboard stop and sheared in half dropping free of the hull!
