So what you are saying then I should have closed the hole before he got in there, at his speed he would almost certainly hit me up the "derrier" at which stage it would have been my fault for changing course, I couldn't think of any way of defending that situation and feel that it makes a bit of a mockery of starting.

Suggestions of tactics to avoid the same please as these skiff owners seem pretty savvy and he knew exactly what he was doing and will do the same again.