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It wasn't until I moved to the east coast that I started to realise that there was something deeply wrong here.
I now know that in the past three decades, there has been an unprecedented rise in the number of people who have been arrested for sailing. This is not always a small phenomenon. It is a fact that people are now sailing more than ever before in the last 12 years.
"What do you mean by 'unseemly'?" the head of the National Boat Safety Commission, Andrew Mackintosh, asked me in a recent interview. "You mean a person, maybe 20 years old, who comes into this country with no documentation, and is in fact just a person who is just a bad mover and not a member of the boat.
"This is a very serious problem, as you can see from the recent statistics. I think the most important thing is that people are aware that they won't be able to get away with it. If they are going to sail for a while, why not try to get them off the boat?"
The head of the National Boat Safety Commission, Andrew Mackintosh, looks on as he talks about people who say they have been involved in boat mishaps who have been arrested. Photograph: The Press Association
I asked Mackintosh what he meant by unseemly. "They are very, very lucky people," he said. "They are the ones who have been sailing for 20 years or more.
"There are a lot of people who do not come to the boat because they do not have any documentation. There are people who have been arrested for being a boat mechanic, who has had a boat, who has sailed the boat but is a registered member of the boat.
"If you have been arrested for being a boat mechanic, then you are a registered member of the boat. If you are an accountant, then you have a registered member of the boat. You are not a member of the boat.
"If you are an accountant, then you still have the legal right to sail. If you are an accountant, then you have the legal right and the privilege to sail. If you are a member of the boat, then you are still your own boat mechanic.
"If you are a fisherman, then you still have the legal right and you still have the legal privilege to sail. If you are a fisherman, then you are still your own fisherman. You have the legal right and the privilege to sail.
"If you don't have the legal right to sail, then you are still your own fisherman. You have the legal right and the privilege to sail. If you are a sailor, then you are still your own sailor. You have the legal right and the privilege to sail.
"We are at a point where we are seeing boat accidents on a daily basis. It's very concerning. We are at a point where we are seeing boat accidents on a daily basis. It's very concerning.
"We are seeing boats that are sailing on the wrong side