It also seems reasonable that he could get this adjustment waved in a local regatta.

We once allowed a guy to use his dog as crew in order to make minimum weight. We were not really worried about any boat that had a dog on board. And it was too cool to cross paths on the course and yell "Starboard!"
The dog would start barking at us. So even if we were on Port; we yelled. I'm not suggesting your Dad start barking though.