Some really excellent points here.

Eric, I see your point (regarding the Case 80), thanks for pointing that out. I only made that comment because there are some pretty senior judges around here that might disagree with that, but I'm not a judge, so I'm not going any further with that. I can see the distinction the case is trying to make (an RC error vs. penalizing without a hearing).

Personally, I am a PRO, and I NEVER use DNF as a weapon (as I said in the other thread, this is one of my major pet peeves). In fact, for several years before I was a PRO I was doing scoring for all Hobie Division 12 regattas. Whenever I saw a DNF on the finish sheets with any kind of note (such as, crossed a closed line, sailed wrong course, etc.), I would always push back on the PRO.

Push back on what, you ask? Well, we all know that technically, this needs to be protested, no PRO wants to do it, and it should be up the sailors to police themselves. However, if there is a situation where it seems pretty obvious that a rule was broken, and no other competitors were in the area to witness, and the RC had an outstanding viewpoint of the whole thing, something should be done to keep blatant issues from getting out of hand.

Long, long ago I learned a very powerful trick from a short, bald PRO with lots of experience (PU). Simply approach the sailor, explain the situation (as the PRO or mark boat saw it), and ask them if they would like to retire. If you have a good case, this gets you out of something like 99% of these jams, and allows the sailor to save face with his competitors, and most importantly saves the aforementioned drinking time.

If the sailor thinks he was right, it's no big deal, just file the protest and let the PC work it out.

Mike