The damage to that particular RC boat was primarily their fault for not having a spacer mark on a line that had to accommodate 50+ cats on a fairly windy day at a Nationals. No sympathy from any competitors that day!

Rather than go into a specific incident (incidentally I WAS summoned by the protest committee, but exonerated) I don't think the boat nearest the mark or RC boat can be held accountable for anything if they are making a fair, legal start. Chances are that there will be a whole gaggle of boats to leeward and allowing a barging boat in can cause massive problems further down the line and possibly injure people (don't forget that there may well be crews already out on the wire). No, I feel that any boat that reaches in with boats below gets all they deserve if they push the point, coupled with which, it'll be the guilty that suffer rather than those who are playing by the rules.

BTW I've been caught out in the past and, although I couldn't have been described as reaching in, been forced up by a boat below me and had to come to a crash stop so that I could duck into the line behind the most windward boat. It was my fault, I don't blame the other guy, it's just part of racing.