This is excellent discussion. I am not concerned over my past experiences, I have learned from them and will not be caught with my pants down again. At this point I have enough knowledge of the rules to defend and protect myself. However, when I started racing I did not know the rules well. In my first accident I had no idea what to do and no one bothered to talk with me or help me. My wife overheard the other skipper talking with another competitor about filing a protest to get some insurance money. I'm the new guy, my boat is destroyed, my wife was nearly seriously injured and no one from the RC even came to see if we were ok. Much less offer any guidance on what to do next. I remember asking another participant what should be done and his statement was " if you were on port you better have insurance".
It would seem to me that the first thing a RC would do when a collision occurs is speak with both partys and help them with a protest or whatever else should be done. This collision had to be reported to local authorities as well. My insurance company paid the other sailors claim as they stated the dollar amount wasn't sufficient to take him to court to disprove the race committees findings.

It would appear that you are on your own if you choose to enter a race. If your boat gets damaged and the other skipper denies his liability you have no recourse other than small claims court. Yet every race I have entered required me to sign an entry stating I have proper insurance, whether I do or not. My insurance will pay for the damage regardless how it occurs but its still not right! When the rules are not enforced it opens the door for dishonest people. Like it or not, if you don't follow the rules you are dishonest!