Hi all,
I competed in an informal race at our club on sunday. Four A-cats, Nacra 5.2 (me and my crew), 570 and one Hobie-16. There was one boat we couldn't figure. They were all over the place, missing bouys here and there. When we got to what I will call the upper bouy (we were racing on a lake around some islands) they appeared out of nowhere going downwind. They had cut off almost a mile on what was to become an hour long course. I was certain I had taken the right bouy because I had just watched all the remaining A-cats rounding it (one retired due to a previous injury that was unfortunately playing up. Naturally I was p1ssed 0ff with the cheating. I asked the skipper politely where exactly he thought this upper bouy was located and if he would point it out to me on the map. At that point he started to stutter and mentioned he had forgotten his glasses, and besides it wasn't much of a "race" anyway and he'd probably sailed way more distance than anyone else because he messed up on the first bouy... Excuses, excuses, you get the idea.
Ok, maybe it wasn't a serious race to him, but I still felt like I had been taken for a ride (thats the GA rated version). I didn't feel like filing an official protest for fear of ruining the atmosphere. It was my first informal race at this club.. The way I feel now, the sailing was great, but I sure wish people like this would stay at home or take a voluntary DNF or whatever.

What would you do in such a situation?