Within one of the 'cases' and cases should be used as guidelines, not
gospel, the decision was, the protestor is obligated to hail 'protest' as
per the rules, and fly the swallow tail code B flag, as per rules. There is
not obligation that his or her hail of protest be heard by the protestee.

In terms of where one should store the signal flag, that is up to the
skipper. I do know of some active racers who have the protest flag attached
to their backstay, rolled, and a quick release cord sets it flying --
outcome of a competitive association he races in. Mind you, he and I have
'tangled' a few times, he asked for room, and I responded nope, not
entitled. He hailed protest, and I counter with a protest hail and stated
both on a rule violation and poor sportsmanship. Enough was enough, time to
call his bluff and put an end to his trying to intimidate everyone on the
planet. Games!

But within a hearing, one has to use common sense in these matters and
determine what was reasonable time. You can imagine what it is like for
most starts, and with some screaming and hollering going on, one wonders
who, what, where, us.... It seems to me that it used to be with the smaller
boats that the start line was very aggressive. Now, it seems with the
larger, faster boats, it gets very tight and rough in the start areas. I
wonder why? What has changed?