You're quite welcome, this stuff is fun. It's always a learning experience (for all parties involved), otherwise it would get boring quickly.

There are a million ways to learn this stuff, and time on the water is equally as important as anything written in a book or spoken in a seminar. But, I have found that the US SAILING seminars (RC and Judge) are outstanding, as well as the North U courses on rules and tactics. Maybe seminars suit my particular learning style, but I really like the interactions of students and instructors, and you get to hear some unique "real-life" situations that you might not have encountered yet yourself.

Probably a "next-level" exercise would be to get involved with umpiring. Those guys (and girls) literally follow around boats on the water and constantly call out who has ROW, and what rules are in effect, REAL-TIME, as it unfolds.

As for the question about what constitutes backing a sail, I would like to see a clear definition. Since there is no definition in the RRS, we are taught as judges to look to dictionaries for common meanings of words in question...

From Dictionary.com:
backwind
–verb (used with object), -wind•ed, -wind•ing. Nautical .
1. to divert wind against the lee side of (a sail) from another sail.
2. to set (a sail) so that the wind is on what would ordinarily be the lee side, as for turning the bow of a boat away from the wind.
3. to blanket (another sailing vessel) by spilling wind from the sails of one vessel onto the lee side of the sails of the other.

I'm having trouble visualizing #1. It almost sounds like if you pull the jib clew to the mast you would be backing wind into the main. I don't think that's quite right, because what you're really doing (or trying to do) is use the pressure from the windward side of the jib to get the bow down.

So, following #2, if you are parked on starboard (with the wind coming from the starboard side of the boat), and pull the jib over to the starboard side so you can get the bow down (with the wind filling the starboard side of the jib), I would say that is NOT backing the sail.

Also following #2, if you are parked on starboard (with the wind coming from the starboard side of the boat), and push the jib over to the port side so you can back up or push the boat over to port tack (with the wind filling the port side of the jib), I would say that IS backing the sail.

As for JW's scenario, I would need to get more info (best in a hearing). But, the maneuver of the original leeward boat sounds like a candidate for Matt's bucket-O-tar...

Hope this helps.

Mike