The "death zone" - love it. Thanks for the post. This is a good thread.

In the circumstance I described, about half the time, the boat jumping through the hole gets through cleanly - i.e., the boat with rights did not have to alter course to avoid, meaning he took the mark too wide, imo, and leaving himself vulnerable and without a protest. That's when the most shouting seems to occur - one saying "hey, you can't do that," and the other replying "hey, you opened the door and I walked through."

I only ever saw someone trying to force room get driven up into the mark once - folks here generally hail "protest," get around the mark and forget about the guy trying to get clear for his turns. The one time I saw someone driven into the mark, the four-foot tetrahedron wound up between the hulls, behind the foil and firmly stuck. The poor crew was sent forward to jump up and down on the mark trying to shove it back under the foil as the rest of the fleet rounded what, at that point, constituted a not-inconsiderable obstruction on the course. There was a lot of shouting of a different nature as the parade went by.

Thanks again -