Culture

An actual happening at the Sailability British Keelboat League event in Cardiff.

The three RIBS were ready to set out. The Safety RIB, the Jury Rib and the Bosun RIB, when someone said "There's a boat out already, he won't have had permission to go out. "

The Safety RIB driver said " I hope they don't get into difficulties"

The Jury man said "Do we need to disqualify them?"

The Bosun said "I hope they don't break anything."

The man who made the original observation said "That shows how narrow your horizons are!"

Amusing, but I was already thinking about the culture of events, the way Match Racing will start quite early in the morning, 9am is not unusual. Team Racing will be  little more relaxed and aim for around 10, often not making it and Fleet Racing often starts around midday. Team Racers bring their own Umpire Flags, Match Race Umpires expect flags to be provided by the organisers. Having seen disabled sailors in the US, they expect to be treated no differently from ordinary sailors, if they are not ready in time they will take responsibility. In the UK we will wait if a disabled sailor has a problem, and they would probably expect us to wait.

All of these little things, and generalisations, go to make up the culture of an event. It's good to be sensitive of the culture, but sometimes very difficult to make decisions that follow the culture.