Luffing before the start

With about 45 seconds to the start, I hooked around the stern of another boat (both boats on starboard tack) and attempted to force him up.  I do so rather rapidly but did hail the other boat to move up.  They did not and I was forced to bear back off to avoid collision.

At this stage I had lost my way-on and both I and the second boat were luffing our sails, moving forward) albeit slowly) while we waited for the gun.

Meanwhile a third boat established overlap to leeward of me and began calling for me to head up; however I was unable to do so as for me to head up further would have pushed me past head to wind and most likely caused a collision with the boat to windward of me.  The third boat was forced to bear away from me to avoid collision.

I protested the boat to windward of me for violating rule 11. The boat to leeward of me did not protest, although he probably could (and should) have.

The protest hearing has yet to happen.  I'm wondering if I was overly aggressive in my attempt to hook the other boat and may not have given him sufficient time to keep clear prior to me bearing away.  On the other hand, the rules do stipulate that if a middle boat (me) is overlapped with a windward and a leeward boat, then by definition the two outside boats are also overlapped, in which case the windward boat (the one I protested) may have violated rule 11, albeit the aggrieved boat would be the one to leeward of me and not myself.

Thoughts?

It is the first incident that I am protesting, which seems clear cut by your interpretation.  It seems that to bring up any factors pertaining to the addition of the boat to leeward to me may not only add confusion to the matter, but open me up to a penalty myself.  It would appear therefore that the best thing to do would be to approach this protest hearing as though the third boat (the one to leeward of me) did not exist at all, since they did not protest.

One hiccup is that the helmsman of that third boat is one of my witnesses, who can attest to the fact that boat W was not altering course for me, the middle boat.  However if this person begins talking about his boat and how I was not keeping clear of him, this may add confusion to the situation unnecessarily.

Although I was virtually head to wind by the end of all this, there most certainly was not room for me to tack over without hitting the boat to windward of me.  We were close enough that I could have handed a can of beer to the helmsman of the boat to windward of me.