When yelling “Protest” is the right thing to do

As a follow-up to a report by Kim Couranz titled ‘Sometimes Good Sportsmanship Means Yelling ‘Protest’!”, Ron Weiss shares his observation on the issue:

Kim Couranz is dead-right about racing and the self-policing of our sport. Unfortunately, I’ve often seen competitors who know the rules cold but pretend they do not, and these folks tend to protest (and lose!) a lot.

In a season of 15-20 weeknight beer can races with 20-25 boats, we get about five or six protests. Invariably, there is one individual who accounts for more than 75 percent of these protests. Why? Because he flagrantly bluffs in Rule 2 situations, picking on competitors who know less than he does, who lack the confidence to defend their rights, or who don’t love going into protest meetings as much as he does.

For the first couple of seasons racing against this individual (we were in the same class), and having a number of on-the-water encounters in which I declined to protest in the spirit of “Hey, it’s beer can racing,” I had had enough. – Full report