Tami,

I believe that specific situation is covered in USSA judge seminars. It is typically expected that if possible, the "assistor" keep reasonable track of how much time/distance was required to render assistance. This is the best way to file for redress, because it shows that you just want what is fair, and you are making the jury's job easy by providing a solution.

Having said that, I have seen multiple cases at Hobie NAs where the RC (PU) filed for redress for individual boats that we witnessed stop racing to pull people out of the water, etc. We tend to be as generous as possible without affecting tropy positions (unless that is warranted by the performace of the assistor). EDIT: Meaning, if they were clearly in first place and stopped racing to help a boat, it might be reasonable to award them a finish posistion of first place.

Mike