It's not hard to believe at. We see it every weekend, the ppl who don't know port from starboard, stand on to give way. It's getting to the point almost when the rules do get followed it stands out as being odd.

At the speeds those boats travel running through a pack is more like guess work, you can't see anchors lines, smaller boats, or even maybe ppl swimming.......seen it a lot when the bite slows down ppl or kids cool off with a quick dip.

If they had a bird in the air then they should had been given well notice and had them change corse to a safer route of travel. It's not like to go around a perch pack would cost that much fuel/time.

Heck most of the time they already have a pretry good idea who the top 5 ppl are going be, baring any breakage, b4 the race even starts.