Ah yes... one more issue of PRO responsibility. When you have mark boats assisting sailors with their personal crisis.... the rest of fleet goes without.

It is certainly a judgment call but it seems better to say the PRO and RC should not move one inch off the standard that they are to run races AND the standard of "Safety is everyone's concern".

Having sat through a long delay at CRAM's catfight years ago while they assisted a boat to the beach. The question on the beach was.. What are the responsibilities of the RC here.

Should they have towed the boat to the shore...(took an hour)
take the crew on board and called SeaTow for the boat for him,
anchored the boat and towed it in after the racing.

Mike's comments about the message he delivers on the beach is key. He is managing expectations and thereby minimizing the upset. (If he says... you will be anchored until assistance to the beach is available.. you can't complain)
So... if those power boats are MARK BOATS you get one message...(Oh... they are there to run the race) If you call them CRASH boats ... you have a different expectation. Call them Safety boats... quite another... Heck... you could expect that they have a trained safety person on the boat able to dive and assist a trapped sailor (NOT Likely)

I still think the Hobie class associations are out on a limb of their own making with the published guidelines and definitions (my view a STANDARD) .... and they are all by themselves out there (I think PU was much more assertive in the article that I read.)