Eric,
I totally agree that communication is very important, even when it is not required by the rules. But in a breeze, voices are being swept away by the wind, and the wind is whistling across people's ears, so often you cannot hear WHAT anybody is saying, or even hear them at all. So communication is not always feasible for boats crossing upwind and downwind in fleets of boats that tack downwind. That is why you have to rely upon people knowing the rules and holding their course if they are the right-of-way boat.

I am very guilty of abusing the rules myself, because when I am a right-of-way boat and I see a big, fast, aggressive, spinnaker boat on a collision course with me, I just slow way down or even park until that boat passes in front of me, and then I try to get going again. That is not the way it should have to happen, but I am very intimidated. I realize my actions could actually be endangering other people when they are expecting me to be proceeding at my normal pace on my normal course.

I am willing to admit this because I am just a wimpy woman, but there are men who feel the same way and will not admit it -- they just stop going to regattas.