Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on June 14, 2009 at 07:00:13 user ACB.
In Reply to: Re: Safety first and last posted by Pam Adams on June 13, 2009 at 04:06:55:
As Pam says, times were different. people did not wear buoyancy aids to sail racing dinghies, like International 14's in the 1930's, let alone "sensible" lugsail dinghies like Swallow and Wizard, which were much less capsizable. In 1970 I enjoyed riding a motorbike without a helmet down to my first boat and taking her out with no lifejacket - not thinks that I would do now or that my sons would do either.
There is a change in the mentality of dinghy racers - it is now OK to capsize, whereas it used not to be, so I suspect people simply adjust their behaviour to the limits of the safety equipment!