I can not help but comment on the litigation issue. I have never been to a regatta where the sailing instructions dont make it clear that the decision to race is the skippers and that the whole responsibility is the skippers. I have been to some regattas where I preferred to stay in safety on land as one or two boats launched to try to score some "easy" points over the rest (not so easy points after all, as it turned out). But even if I thought the organizer should postpone, it was my decision and responsibility to decide. The same when my crew went swimming for 30 minutes in winds strong enough to make it very, very, hard to pick him up again.
I sure hope the litigation issue is not as bad as Mark makes it sound like. The only ones who would want a system like that would be the lawyers.