I think Eric broke down and explained the situation clearly.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing in the rules that says that a boat has to anticipate what another boat might do!! I hate this idea. They could throw the boat up into the wind like they are tacking and then bear off. They could be going into port with a broken piece. There should never be any idea that a boat needs to anticipate what another boat might do.

This hits close to home because I was told in a protest room that I should have anticipated that a boat would tack and avoided the situation.

Protest room = 50/50 chance. Still does.

Glad they had the photo evidence so they could show they did everything they could and they started much earlier to try to avoid the situation. Could they have crash tacked? I'm not sure but I doubt it. They certainly couldn't have crash tacked from the time the boat went to close hauled on starboard.

The boat ahead could do two things.
A. Bear off and create separation so that they can have room to tack.
B. Pinch up early to try to get above the other boats line. Probably not a good idea unless match racing because of the loss of speed/vmg.