A) it was a joke Mark...chill!! (Mike can tell you a few stories about collisions...he doesn't only race cats) And I don't recall bringing any of their sailing skills into question. The fact that they are at AC while the rest of us are arguing about silly crap from a keyboard takes that question out of the equation.
B) fair or not...rules are rules. They apply to everyone equally. And if someone is truly "top of the fleet"...they should be able to recover...as apparently happened here.