I'd wager that part of the problem is the huge amount of publicity on TV given to SAR in recent years, making people feel safer, expecting that the minute they get out of their depth a man on a winch will appear out of the sky.
That is a very good point that I hadn't considered. It does seem odd that we've had such a run of them of late - if it continues then it must be that something has changed.
I'll leave the thread running in case new points, such as those so far, which might point to another reason.
The B Word
