Hey Steve,

I mean, Staying On the Damn Boat is seamanship at its most elemental, no? Obviously, these boats cannot be expected to retrieve a MOB themselves, any attempt to do so would likely pose a serious risk to the guy in the water, but to have no penalty whatsoever assessed? Especially, given the amazing technological capability of the Race Umpires to assess instantaneous, on-course penalties for any conceivable infraction?

http://www.cupexperience.com/blog/2012/09/understanding-penalties

Here's a nice bit of nostalgia for you... Remember when SPORTS ILLUSTRATED used to cover the AC, and sent someone like Carleton Mitchell up to Newport to write about it? From the SI Vault:

"Just after the turn the Aussies put on a show to liven things up a bit. Main-sheet man David Forbes leaned outboard to flip the spinnaker sheet over the end of the boom. A surge decanted him overboard, where he was towed alongside, still holding the mainsheet. To a spectator on the lee side he looked like "an oversize sack of potatoes, churning up foam." Quick and husky crewmates hauled him into the cockpit. Had Forbes lost his grip, Gretel would have had to turn back, for the rules require a boat to finish with the same number in crew as she carried at the start."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1084001/index.htm

Amazing no one was seriously hurt when ETNZ stuffed their bows on Saturday... That boat recorded a deceleration from 40.7 knots to 13 during the space of ONE SECOND...

BTW, Steve - I don't think those Dean Barker and his boys would much like you referring to them as "Australians"... (grin)

best regards,

Jon