NO RC that I know deliberately sets a committe favored line.... THEY WANT the boats down the line... If they are near sighted... they put their mark boat on the pin to sight PMS's... You should name names so they can get educacted (GB might say)!

But I also think that many RC's want a game of musical chairs on the line. IE... not enough room for the fleet to fit on the line with some boats forced into a second row start... Somehow... they feel that this is esential to a well run sailboat race... and I think they are listening to the wrong group of racers here.

My reading of the guidelines is 1 and 1/2 boats of room per boat in the start.., (sometimes they compromise for differences in fleet size in a multistart race and that is understandable). So... with that kind of room... there should not be a big issue of you getting a reasonable start... (on time and clear air) If you choose to fight it out for the best start... have at it...
Remember... the point of the start is not to define a race winner... rather... just get the race going fairly!

IMO, RC's should err on the side of a generous line length... not a sqeaky tight line.

New racers should be coached about how this game is going to play and advised to pick a spot that is not quite so contested.... (Scaring the beejesus out of them does not serve us well as per the post above)... Kudo's to the Syracuse fleet for anouncing well ahead of time a coaching clinic for new or less experienced racers coming to their big regatta..