Roy Smith wrote:

Garry McGonigal wrote:
Once we protested and theys aw the red flag, they did their penalty
turns and were gone. We were still trying to get back to coruse and
up to speed and actually the offending boat gained substantial
course advantage through all of that.

Sounds like they were in violation of:

44.1 Taking a Penalty

A boat that may have broken a rule of Part 2 while racing may take a
penalty at the time of the incident. Her penalty shall be a 720 Turns
Penalty unless the sailing instructions specify the use of the Scoring
Penalty or some other penalty. However, if she caused serious damage
or gained a significant advantage in the race or series by her breach
she shall retire.

If the other boat gained "substantial course advantage", as you put
it, they should have retired. Doing a 720 is not enough.

Be aware that there is a difference between the fouled boat suffering
a significant disadvantage and the fouling boat gaining a significant
advantage.

Rarely does a boat gain "a significant advantage" when she gains one
place in a regatta (as presumably happened in the cited example).
This is especially true if the incident happens somewhere other than
near the finishing line. When the incident happens earlier in the race
who can possibly know what part the inciident played in the final
result of the race (i.e., whether a significant advantage was gained)?

On the other hand, a fouled boat might often suffer a significant
disadvantage if they become flustered by the incident. The last
sentence of rule 44.1 is intended to cover significant advantage, not
significant disadvantage.

Consider a situation in which a clear astern boat improperly forces
their way inside a group of 6 boats at a mark. There the fouling boat
picks up 6 places - and almost certainly gains a significant
advantage. Coincidentally, none of the other boats suffers a
significant disadvantage since each only loses one place.

Art Engel
e-mail: artengel123 (at) earthlink.net
Web: http://www.racingrules.org