A couple of points about my post:

1. The I20 sailor in my story is a nice guy. He got wound up when he found himself in the situation I described. I'd bet he agrees 100% with me and will know what to do next time. I do not believe he would have filed a protest if the H-16 had continued their race.
2. Maugan - You're calling an Olympic silver medalist a pretty strong name. He is 100% right. If you race and put yourself in a position to be luffed by a leeward boat, tough cookies if you flip. Anticipation and strategy are part of the game. If you don't want that kind of risk, better not get on the race course!
3. One of my concerns is many drivers get pre-occupied sometimes with a chute set and/or what the crew is doing while they should focus only on driving and positioning their boat. Let the forward guy do his job. You put the boat where it needs to be. My observation of this incident was just that. The driver was pre-occupied with the chute set and suddenly found himself in his precarious position. If there would have been a protest with me as a witness to what happened, he probably would have been tossed rather than the H-16 who was trying to anticipate what to do (even though he seemed to freeze up initially).

My main point is that those of us driving the faster boats in these events need to keep our eyes ahead and plan our moves up or down the course to not only race better but stay safe.

Later,

Bob