How would you decide this?

Dave Perry’s 100 Best Racing Rules Quizzes highlights specific aspects of the racing rules in a fun format designed to help you become more familiar with The Racing Rules of Sailing. Here’s Quiz 98:

Question:
Boats P and S, racing to an upwind finishing line, are approaching the left-end finishing mark on opposite tacks. S is sailing a close-hauled course on the star- board-tack layline to the mark. P has overstood the port-tack layline and is sailing about 10 degrees below a close-hauled course. S hails, “Starboard!” and P hails, “Room!” S avoids P and protests. In the protest hearing, P claims that she was not sailing close-hauled and therefore she was not on a “beat to windward,” and that she did not need to tack to finish (i.e., to sail her proper course). Therefore, she was entitled to mark-room from S. You are on the protest committee; how would you decide this?

For the answer, click here.