I would suspect that the gub'ment won't take kindly to repeated violations of its exclusion zone. Therefore it would be in the best interest of this adventure race to not repeatedly "test" the enforcement of this exclusion zone by those guys in black RIBs. I guess those that did violate the zone have clean backgrounds, or else they probably would have been nuked by some circling Predator drone...!

At some point they'll send a sternly worded letter to the T500 organizers which might make future races more logistically challenging. (larger exclusion zone, stiffer regulation, having Coast Guard sit there and do inspections while the boats wait...etc)

What penalty is "fair"? That would have to be decided by race organizers and/or competitors. Most definitely BEFORE the leg is sailed, too.

I have been to events where the penalty didn't fit the crime, and some less than scrupulus competitors just ate the penalty and still came out ahead.

Stuff like that kind of feels a lot like that situation where top teams near the end of the regatta don't sail the last race as more of a strategic move..

I applaud those who owned up to their mistake, and especially those who backtracked once they realized their error.