Unsafe outcomes from over-regulation

The Scuttlebutt report about safety standards churned this memory from Mark Chew who publishes Southern Woodenboat Sailing:

A few years ago, I entered a race run by one of Australia’s premiere yacht clubs that was to be held on Sydney Harbour. The safety requirement was Cat 7 and so boats without lifelines were allowed to sail. Our old boat had good new lifelines, the design of which had served her well for over 60 years. However, the stanchions were 100mm too far apart to meet today’s regulations.

This was our only non-compliant item and the inspector refused our certificate. The only solution he offered that would allow us to race, was to remove the lifelines entirely. That way he could tick the appropriate boxes on his form, sign off, and we could go racing.

I recount this story not as a rant against the inspector, or even the rules laid down in the safety regulations, but as an example of how over-regulation can often lead to less safe outcomes.

Other examples include rules for some clubs on Port Phillip that cancel sailing with wind averages over 22 knots. There is a generation of keelboat sailors growing up, for whom putting in a reef is a novelty. And then they go out into Bass Strait.

Modern safety technology is brilliant, and training programs are essential, but neither are really effective without time on the water in real life circumstances experiencing what works and what doesn’t. Rules that limit this are dangerous.

Over the years, I’ve spoken with a handful of VERY experienced ocean racers about this exact problem and without exception they concur that the bureaucratization of safety is taking away from reality of staying safe. (click here for example at 15:45 minute mark)