My only in-flight glider failure happened back when I was a 'baby level pilot'. Fortunately, it was a baby level glider failure, but at the time, I thought I needed a yaw string to fly coordinated with confidence. During aerotow, my yaw string departed the canopy. 'Oh s***!'

I heard my instructor's voice echo, 'stay on tow, altitude is your friend, give yourself some time to work things out, stay calm.' I softly vocalized 'stay calm'.

I knew about 'spin on turn to base', but I had also practiced 'slip on turn to base'. Slip good, skid bad.

I added 5 knots to my pattern speed, and kept the rudder neutral.