I always assume personal responsibility for the decision to hit the water or not.

I don't expect chase boats to assist if I get in trouble, ( they sure are nice though).

I got myself into a situation I could not help myself out of last year but I still don't expect the OA to be there to save my a$$! This is why I ALWAYS stop to check on a sailor when they are down... you just never know.

But Mark, I'm not really clear on the point of this post. You could have 99 out of 100 people say they accept personal responsibility for their decisions, but you know there is always at least one that doesn't and that's what this is all about, those one percenters. Heck those one percenters have made their positions quite clear on this forum alone.