"5 hours on the water without a break is plenty..."

Just beat me to my next point (and this is meant to be forward-looking)...

As Matt has said, there are times when more than 5 races might be needed. Such as, Day 1 has no wind and only 1 race, Day 2 is perfect, and the forecast for Days 3-5 is a hurricane (or something along those lines).

So, the OA and PRO would probably want to run as many races as humanly possible on Day 2. But, if the NOR puts a mandate on 4-5 per day, you'd only get 6 races for the week.

However, if everyone knows going into it that 6-7 are preferred for Day 2, and a lunch break is used, that might be the best solution in that case.

So, we're back full circle. There's only so much you can litigate without unforseen negative consequences, because Mother Nature will not be tamed.

At the end of the day, we need to be able to rely on sound judgement from our PROs.

Of course, that judgement needs to include listening to the OA and Class reps, as we are trained by US SAILING to do.

Mike