I'm thinking of getting back into boating, and so I pick up that
ponderous old tome, Chapman's, and I open it up to the chapter on Rules
of the Road.

And as every educated boater knows, there are all kinds of rules
concerning signaling with blasts of the horn when you're overtaking,
changing course, and so on.

And this puzzles me, because I don't think I've ever seen these rules
obeyed, in all the time I've been on the water. I don't think I've
ever heard a boat horn blasted, except perhaps in anger.

Indeed, I would argue that if the rules were followed in an actual
harbour, people would go deaf hearing all the horn blasts!

Why is Chapman (or Mahoney, I guess) concerned with rules nobody
observes out in the real world?

Is it possible that learning about these ancient rules is actually
detrimental to safety out on the water, since nobody obeys them and
it's bad to teach people to expect that they will be obeyed?

Are there any books that talk about what actually happens out on the
water instead of the theory of what should happen?

D