Agree with all of Eric's points. At the end of the day, it's a judgement call based on the PC's understanding of the performance capabilities of the boats.

There is absolutely no port/starboard issue here, there is no starboard tack parade coming into the mark, these guys were not on suicide port. Guys, please stop making references to situations in other regattas that are totally unrelated to this one.

Tacking too close is tacking too close. The boat behind is in control. One really good defense I have seen is to pinch up like mad and tack right after the mark. Odds are, the boat behind won't be able to follow and stop you from tacking.

A's biggest tactical error was that they came in several boat lengths below the layline, so they weren't able to tack around the mark, using it as a pick. This is one of those situations where you need to commit (you're either pregnant or not, as they say)... Of course, 9 times out of 10, you don't want to be on a layline and get stuck with a shift that you can't take advantage of, so that's a really tough call to make further back on the leg.

Looking at the design of these boats, it amazes me how small those rudders are, relative to the size of the hulls. If we were sailing our beach cats with rudders of a similar scale, we would never be able to turn, either.

Mike