Rules is rules

When it comes to having a regulation for everything, you can’t beat a bit of yacht racing

- Dave Selby

Last month, what with a little bit of time on my hands, I made a solemn vow to PBO readers to produce the world’s first English-language version of A Seaman’s Guide to the RULE OF THE ROAD. I’m afraid it’ll probably have to be next month now at the earliest as Google Translate can’t identify the source language.

I hope you’ll bear with me as I’m sure there are some really great rules in there, and like most British leisure sailors – apart from my mate Tommy the racer with his fully-battened jacket made out of the mainsail of a defeated Cowes Week contender – I particularly enjoy spending most of my time afloat, ashore, aground, in the pub, at home or asleep wondering what regulations I’ve broken and whether anyone will visit me in prison.

This peculiarly British trait of looking for rules to obey is one of the reasons we left the EU: there just weren’t enough rules.