John, I hear your arguments and appreciate the sentiment. But you know as well as I do that accidents do happen and will continue to happen every year no matter what new or old or innovative rules or penalties we adopt, be it high finish, low finish or no finish. Stupidity can't be regulated. If we are going to regulate/ penalize finishes to these draconian levels, why not regulate proximity within gaggles, penalize any saves below 800 ft, penalize low drag flying off the wing tip vortices of a competitor, limit task finish times to under 3 hours per day because multiple "long" days creates fatigue, the list becomes endless.

In addition, the competition degrades from a test of "soaring" skill, to one of "system/scoring management.

I don't race anymore (primarily because of issues just like the one in this thread), so I am just an interested observer. The issues should be settled completely, solely by those who are actively racing today. In addition, member of the RC should be required to race at least two regionals per year to remain on the committee, and direct polling of only the racing community should determine what U.S. racers want for their races irregardless of its affect on Worlds. The Worlds are a completely seperate issue and involve only a few guys who can train however they need to in order to be competitive there.