Hollow Victory!!<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />
Did you know that at the 2008 Olympics the ISAF are proposing 1 Discard in 15 races for the 49ers and 1:10 for the remaining fleets as opposed too 1:5. Also, despite a little bit of searching I couldn't find any guidlines as to the number of discards allowed per series. It is all dependant on the person/committee who draft the Sailing Instructions.
Maybe using John's results at the Nations Cup wasn't the best example but don't forget he had technical difficulties with his kite in race 3, fell off the boat in race 8 and was late for the start in race 9. I had one trap line snap on me in race 4 which gave me a 5th and this was purely down to my lazyness of not replacing the fraying item beforehand.
I appreciate what you're saying about 11 firsts and a breakage etc and I hope you understand where I'm coming from so as a compromise how about 12 races and 1 Discard, last race or the series is a Medal race which is non discardable.