Crew members tease one another mercilessly, play practical jokes on one another, and often develop healthy rivalries with the other boats in the fleet.
As the modern antidote for boardroom boredom, cellular phones have allowed jaded executives to play the addictive Snake or text rude jokes to their colleagues under the cover of a conference table.
It's hard to describe quite how excruciating this was - imagine an under-rehearsed school play without the benefit of a friendly audience to laugh at the awful jokes.