OK, I take it back...the diagrams do explain the relationship between long and short - however, nothing technically ties the label 1S and 1L but common sense may prevail on that one...If the RC was challenged on this and it could be shown that someone was unfairly disadvantaged as a result of the error, the RC would have to erase the race result because of the conflict in the mark color and position on the SI's vs. what actually went in the water.

With regards to proper course; if you guys were all sailing the W2S, which is supposed to be the shorter course around the inner buoy on the diagram, nobody technically sailed an improper course because you still rounded the inner course mark and the outer course mark. The only question is did you sail farther than you needed to. String rule applies, the mark that didn't need to be rounded wasn't technically a mark on the course, and everyone still sailed a "proper course" since they all went to the long one.

However, had someone sailed around the incorrectly colored inner course mark effectively sailing a shorter course, this would illuminate the conflict in the SI's and someone would have been unfairly disadvantaged as a result.