A 10,000 lb monohull can almost pirouette in its length. Deep centerboards/keels with huge rudders allow them to tack away in 4 or 5 feet! I don’t think this is a problem of navigable water or ability to give way as the situation was described. I switched to monohull racing for a period while my kids were very small… I am sure there are exceptions but in general I found that the majority of monohull cruiser/racers struggle with pre-start maneuvering especially as compared to cat racers. This may be because cat racers tend to travel and see a wider range of skills than your local club racing or it might be the boat weight allows faster advancement in cats. The circumstance reported here seemed quite common in monohull club racing for me… I would guess that both windward boats saw what was happening but failed to see forward to the consequences of attempting to hold their course. If they would have seen this, they would have footed as they saw the boat approaching, protecting their leeward while simultaneously building boat speed for the start. Parking 10,000 lbs on the starting line is never, ever a good tactic especially when it may take 30-60 seconds to get to boat speed. This sounds like an attempt to use the rules to cover for a very bad decision on where to start. The leeward screamer is the good guy in this story.