the obvious answer to this is " what is the purpose of the safety boat?"

the answer surely is to save life and limb  with saving property very much a secondary consideration ... on most  enclosed waters  a boat with either blow ashore  or it's mast head will embed in the bottom  stopping it from moving ... the boat can be recovered at leisure...

in terms of people being allowed to sail or otherwise  if a club cancels racing at a point when  a suitably competent person decides it is too windy *for any* reasonable  competent sailor  then the club has exercised reasonable care , it is still a matter for individuals  to decide if up to that point  if it is too windy *for them* ... no one forces you to go sailing. the obvious exception  being when the activtiy is specifically a training one or one targetted at less experienced sailors , when the caution should kick in earlier - it still doesn't mean it's too windy to sail

i 'm sure many of us have gone blasting in serious wind  either 'overwieght' for the boat, reefed or by using different rigs ( e.g.  pinching the missus or little brothers radial rig)

Redders, I think if all the clubs suddenly had to decide when it was safe to let people go sailing we would be in all sorts of trouble. I can just see our club trying to tell me I didn't have the experience to take my 49er out in 15 knots because I may capsize then need the "rescue boat" to come and fish me out, or if they put a limit on what wind strength we could sail in (how would a club determine this for each individual?).

Our club has introduced an upper limit for sailing when only windsurfers are allowed out, but this has only been used once since it's introduction, and it was constantly over 40knots then!

People just have to use their own common sense then take responsibility if it goes wrong (IMO)

sorry,just reread his post and it was for INSURANCE reasons  that they refer to their SAFETY BOATS  AS patrol boats reasons  

                                           why ?       &n bsp;       

Section 6, Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977... exclusion of liability for death and injury as a result of your own negligence is ineffective.

So, there would have to be negligence on the part of the club, and this assumes a duty of care exists.  I'm not sure that a sailing club owes a duty of care to sailors if they choose to go out on the water.  This will depend on if safety cover is provided (if it is, then more likely a duty will exist), and who owns the water (if the sailing club owns it, it is more likely a duty will exist).

I'm fairly confident that a sailing club will only owe a duty of care to sailors on the water if they provide safety cover.  This is different to sailors on land say in the clubhouse where occupiers liability provides for a duty of care.