Ok, just to nip some things in the bud. Jeff's comment was tongue in cheek. He knows the other party... This isn't for the bashing of sailors, everybody feels bad and things are being taken care of to my satisfaction, and I have no need to rub anybody's nose in anything.

But, the situation is interesting to some degree, so maybe it's worth examining, for two reasons - 1) the situation 2) repair issues. So, no names, no attempts to figure out names, no bashing (unless it's directed at me), but I'm interested to know if I have culpability here as well. If it looks like anything personal develops here I'll try to have the thread deleted.

Winds are gusty around 20. Before the start (upwind, pin end to left and heavily favored), boat A is at pin end maybe 40 yards back on port tack, slightly above the rum line to the pin. Boat B comes in on starboard, rounds up, and tacks to port clear to windward and clear ahead. Boat B proceeds to park to get ready for the start, which is in about 45 seconds - parked (moving forward slightly) on port tack (jib is not backwinded), almost nose to wind and would need to fall off to gain movement and steerage. Boat A stays to leeward but moves up about even with Boat B maybe about 2 boat lengths away. Boat A then tacks - either on purpose (forgot B was there) or from aborted attempt to park. Boat B can't get away as she can't accelerate forward quickly without falling off to gain movement and steerage which would put in her in closer - and moving forward would only put her solidy in A's way, there's no way B can tack away without gaining steerage and speed first. Boat B crew yells loudly to let A know there's trouble. Boat A tries to turn completely downwind to duck the sterns, but only partly succeeds before powering up in a gust and hitting B hard just forward of the starboard shroud with her starboard bow. A bounces back, comes on top of B behind the shroud and comes over the rear quarter, bow in the mainsheet system. Once clear of the sheets A slides off the back and both boats count limbs, check for blood, and see if they're sinking...

Ok, I'm boat B. I figure I was burdened once we were both on port tack from being the windward boat. Boat A was probably burdened as the overtaking boat for a bit. When the collision happened the boat that hit me was on starboard. But, I don't feel that A had proper room to tack, they didn't hail that we heard, and they were in clear water (if they were avoiding a starboard tacker it was a boat we never saw, but a possibility). Also, once assuming privileged status, it is a requirement that the burdened boat be given opportunity to stay clear, which I don't feel happened. If they had completed the tack, then had time to round up and throw a flag, I suppose I'd take my turns.

Anyway, that's what happened from the perspective of Boat B. Both parties feel it was A's fault, and things are being taken care of, and nobody's pissed. I'd like to keep it that way. Comments are welcome on the situation, but again, only if they add something to understanding the situation for the purposes of learning.

When winds are up and we go racing things can happen quickly!

Now, for the damage:
The hull/deck lip joint is crushed where the shock cord grommet for the crew trap is. A crack in the deck in the direction of the impact goes about halfway to the dagger slot. From feeling the underneath of the deck by hand I think the crack damage goes all the way through. About halfway down the hull there is a fore and aft hairline crack in the gelcoat probably from the deflection, hopefull not from any delam. With normal rig tension, the deck and lip were noticeably lifting, with the curve the opposite of normal shearline. To me this indicates some structure is compromised, but I mgiht be overreacting.

The 5.8 apparently suffered only superficial damage to the bow, and probably some gel coat scraped off the bottom. And I always thought H-18's would win any full contact version of the sport! Add 5.8s to the tank-boat categorie.

Repairing this seems a little messy due to the famous deck lip. That's why I'm also on the look out for a decent used hull, and hence the post. The deck lip seems to be the major structure, and it obviously is not intact from the lifting of the deck and lip from the rig tension. Anybody have any repair ideas? We're looking at grinding the damage and glassing it back up, unless again a hull shows up. Cosmetically it's a toss-up between a glass repair and mis-matching hulls!