kevin,

just like you sit down with your kids when they do something dangerous, and i assume that if you actually saw them preparing for a trip to the hospital, you would stop them, doesn't the race committee take resumes and approve or disapprove sailors that they deem are not prepared for the trip? please do not construe this as me saying that it is the job of the committee to determine each sailor's competence. it is still up to the skipper of the boat.

i sailed in a race from clearwater to key west last year. we sailed through a pretty nasty storm. at the end of the storm, we were all on the boat and had sustained no injuries. we were prepared for the situation and took all precautions we could. there was another boat that didn't fare so well. their mast dropped into their deck about 4 inches. they had switched all of their battery banks on, and had emptied all of the charge in both banks. the radio would not work without batteries (the antenna wire had broken in the semi-dismasting). they could not start their engine, and were 40 miles off of the coast of florida. my point is, if we had known about the weather before we started, we would not have gone on the trip, but we were prepared for bad weather, etc and faired very well. the other boat that had not prepared was not so lucky. they wound up floating for a few hours until a shrimper came by and offered assistance.

people will always do stupid things. we used to have a helmet law in florida. it is no longer in existence. there is something interesting about passing a law to protect a brain that is too stupid to protect itself.