Peg Kerr's Journal

Some of the local boat-races for boats-made-of-nonstandard-materials (near MIT, empty milk cartons may approach a standard material) have crews of friends working on last-minute assembly and rigging, before the race itself. Your character might be doing that kind of assistance, for a race where life jackets rules are only enforced for the race itself. Around here, the reasoning is that the race begins at 2, at such-and-such location, so all the mad scramble shortly before 2 is legally disconnected. Especially if it's 100 yards from the official race location. Especially if the boat owner/official race entrant (ie, the only one who signed the liability release) doesn't care if his or her helpers wear or fasten flotation devices when helping with setup.