I've been involved with scoring for youth & high school sailing regattas
for the past few years, but so far I've yet to find a definitive case
ruling or explaination regarding violation of a restricted start/finish
line. Some regattas state in the SI's that the starting line is
restricted but do not say what the penalty is for violating the
restriction is, others say the line is restricted and note that
violating the rule is cause for a DSQ (disqualification).

My question is: when the SI, or verbal instruction at the skippers
meeting etc., states that the start/finish line is restricted and does
not specifically state what the penalty is for violating this
restriction is, how should the violation be scored?

In all cases I have witnessed the violation is scored as a DSQ --
meaning that the DSQ is eligible for exclusion in the race series score.

However, RRS 88.3(b) states:

(b) When a scoring system provides for excluding one or more race scores
from a boat’s series score, the score for a breach of rule 2, rule
30.3’s next-to-last sentence, or rule 42 if rule 67, N2.2 or N2.3
applies, shall not be excluded. The next-worse score shall be excluded
instead.

My personal opinion is that sailing across a restricted line (or sailing
inside a standard course mark) is a violation of RRS rule 2:

"2 FAIR SAILING
A boat and her owner shall compete in compliance with recognized
principles of sportsmanship and fair play. A boat may be penalized under
this rule only if it is clearly established that these principles have
been violated. A disqualification under this rule shall not be excluded
from the boat's series score."

My reasoning is that by violating the restricted line requirement the
competing boat has not complied with the principles of sportsmanship and
fair play, and instead has attempted to gain an unfair advantage in the
race by sailing through the restricted line.

Opinions that I've received regarding this have been along the lines
of... "the competitor might have forgotten the restriction and the DSQ
is sufficient penalty", "RRS 88.3(b) is really a rule 69 release valve
and doesn't apply to a restricted line violation", "whats a DNE?", and
"don't worry about it -- it's a minor infraction, the boat is DSQ & who
really cares".

Perhaps a gross analogy of violating the restricted line would be if a
competitor only completed half the leg of a single windward leeward
course, and instead decided to make a left turn halfway up the windward
leg and headed directly back to the finish instead... or in another case
the boat desides to simply skip or cut inside a mark on the course in
order to gain an advantage on the other competitors in the race.

In both of the above situations the competing boat is clearly attempting
to gain an unfair advantage over the other boats in the race and is not
competing according to the "principles of sportsmanship and fair play".
Even in these extreme cases there doesn't appear to be any hard and fast
rule as to whether the boat should be scored DSQ or DNE -- and I suspect
that in most cases the PRO and/or RC will make a decision to score a DSQ
simply because that is what they are familiar with.

Does anyone have a US Sailing and/or ISAF case that can be referred to
regarding scoring a restricted line crossing and whether it should be
scored as a DSQ or DNE without specific scoring instructions stated in
the SI and/or verbal instructions at the skippers meetings?