When you are in the souther ocean you can't just run and hide of a bad weather system. Land is often just to far away and it blows like stink there all the time ! Additionally, running high through the south Atlantic to avoid the roaring 40's and screaming 50's forces you to sail through the St Helena High pressure system (=no wind) of the coast of Africa. You can get becalmed for weeks there. People are known to have gone insane by only a few days of being becalmed.

Therefor I would call such a safety policy a fundamental flaw.

Wouter