I'm against the whole idea of these types of regulations. On the surface they sound good, but curtailing freedom, even if it allows boneheads to no brain themselves into an expensive hole, is a not worthwhile cost to tolerate.
As a difficulty for the cruiser or casual boater, it's not an occurrence that happens often enough to warrant legislation. I mean what's next - if you travel down this road, are rock climbers required to have parachute over a certain height, snowboarders only being able to come down certain, well paroled hills, kayak users only allowed in certain rapids and only with certified designs, etc., etc., etc. The moment your diminish anyone's rights, you've diminished us all to some degree and this is functionally wrong, in a free society. Yeah, it means boneheads will cost us some, but it also means we're not unnecessarily burdened, just to potentially save us from ourselves.
In short, these types of knee jerk reactions are just a Pandora's box of problems. Sometimes, in spite of doing everything right, you still lose the game. Sometimes (the more usual case) you don't do everything right and in hindsight it's easy to see where you screwed up.
In this case any reasonable cruiser would have a few, some automatic EPIRB's aboard. It's only a prudent, deep water mind set. Why they weren't on this yacht is beyond me, but this isn't a time for more regulation, so much as personal reflection, on what you'll bring along, when you're next in deep water. This is the whole concept of freedom, defending the actions of boneheads, even when you'd never do as they would, but helping protect the right to choose, if you so desire.
