In many ways, isn't any protest based on a contention that someone cheated or sailed unfairly? Someone hit a mark, failed to yield right of way, tacked too close, etc. By your logic, there should not be any protests because they could harm the accusee's reputation even if the outcome is in their favor.

I don't think you are considering that Johnnie and Charlie might have actually thought that there was some wrong doing...if they genuinely thought that, were they wrong for filing a protest? I'm sure they were desperate to put some boats between them and they would have been sensitive to what they claim to have witnessed.

I'm not proposing what motivation moved anyone to act as they did or even beginning to pretend that I have any idea what actually happened - only stating that nobody here could possibly know what that was so to jump to a conclusion that J&C behaved "unfairly" is no different that jumping to a conclusion that Chu intended to let Robbie pass. We can't possibly know the motivations of these people at that moment - only that the system determined that there was no foul and I'm good with that.

I'm not even going to start on the Fox News methodology! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />