I am glad this topic was brought up. When I was younger our local fleet was much bigger and it was normal for Divisionals to pull 50-60 boats. When I was 15 I crewed for a great guy on his H18mag. Unfortunately when it came to racing, he was a real d!ck and numberous times ran up the back of H16's that day.

As I grew older, I grew less interested in racing because of people like this. I just do not understand what ramming another boat proves. I view it as a lack of respect for racers and for the race committee, not to mention a major saftey issue. I have also seen "A" fleet sailors scream and carry on at "B" and "C" fleet sailors for no reason. It got so bad 2 years ago that after the first day, all the C fleeters banded together and refused to race the final day.

Lack of respect on the water for other people and their boats is my biggest pet peeve with sailing. It is the helmsman's duty to avoid boat contact at all cost whether they have right of way or not. Saftey & Respect are the golden rules on the water.

The last time I ran a committee boat I tried something new. During the skippers meeting I made it clear that if a boat hits another boat, both boats are DQ'ed, no exceptions and will be reported to the Saftey Patrol. I think they got the drift after 2 boats were DQ'ed and escorted in by the cops after the first race.