As I see it, there is a big difference between SAILX and real life. In real life the most important factor (hoe anders?) is boat handling, add setup and boat differences and you have a big dispersion of fleet across the field with also big differences at the buoys.

In SAILX all skippers are the same skipper, all the boats exactly the same boat (ultimate OD <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ), that makes for very crowded roundings and minimum differences.
With boats sailing at high speeds and no risk of breaking the equipment nor personal injuries you can expect a lot of collisions and incidents (for a 24 boats race we expect some 10-20 collisions during a 10 minute race!).

To hope that sailors will not push the limits and the rules in those conditions is a bit 'naïve'. That's why we do need the protests, the incidents can be replayed later when sailors have somewhat cooled off, the rules in play can be discussed and we all learn.

It is curious how the average sailor ignores about some racing rules, everybody knows the starboard-port (R10), windward-leeward (R11) and clear-astern (R12) but there is a general misunderstanding of interiors (R18), luffing rights (R17) or room to tack (R19).


A-