These sensible suggestions were made more than ten years ago, and many boats are now used for cruising which would fail to reach their standard.

In those days, cruising dinghies were usually beamy, clinker-built boats, heavy by modern standards. The stability test is that the entire crew should be able to stand on the gunwale without capsizing the boat. How would Herons, for instance, fare under this test? The tendency now is to insist on buoyancy, both boat and personal, and on means of calling for help. It seems to me that this is the wrong end from which to approach the subject, both from the point of view of responsibility to others and from that of actual safety. Firstly, what right have we to expect others to endanger themselves, or even to put themselves to trouble, to rescue us from difficulties we have got into for pleasure? Secondly, how likely are we to attract attention from a capsized dinghy some miles off an unfrequented coast? Even in the Solent, distress signals have gone unnoticed for many hours. I should put the emphasis on self-reliance, which should include an insistence on taking no risks, and on confining one’s cruising to the waters and weather suitable for boat and crew. To rescue oneself from a capsized racing dinghy on a calm day in sheltered waters is very different from righting a dinghy loaded with cruising gear in rough waters offshore. Even if righted, it would be lucky to survive unscathed. The aim should be to stay right way up and to keep the water out of the boat. Buoyancy, lifejackets, lifelines are all sensible precautions — especially lifelines — but the right boat, the right crew, the right weather, and a schedule in accord with one’s own experience are the essentials.

And note — these are recommendations, not rules. Those who need rules to keep them safe should not go to sea.