I agree. It is a difficult issue.
The time to form your current position is now... not after the FUBAR.

I think guidelines are appropriate here... Standards are too much.

The standards are for GEAR... The idea is that the OA can just require at a minimum the Safety at Sea gear list. It solves the problem... of who made the YC the safety guru of beach cat racing.
US Sailing > Class rules > YC rules > your idiocyncratic opinion on "safe"

If you want to know what happens when you DON"T think about this stuff...

See the fall out from the SSA junior disaster.
See the fallout from the Chi to Mac disaster.
Wait for the fallout from the Farloones disaster.
Wait for the fallout from the N2E disaster.

Oh... and it matters because the stand alone insurance hit for the OA running distance races is now up ~1000 bucks or so.... see impact on Islander Reef run/ex Hogsbreath