Would you have protested?

I say rubbish.  The rules are there to ensure fair competition.

ie the measurement rules exist to ensure everyone has kit conforming to the ideal of the class, in the case of the 49er one design.  The fact you can in this case use the same rule to force out some who was competing in a measured boat with no advantage gained doesn't mean you should. in other words the spirit if not the minutae of the rule was adhered to.

the racing rules of sailing apply to everyone equally, had Robert, Zach or the swedish fella been a better sailor than them, then Ben or Paul would not have been able to do that to them!!  

oh and if you think sportsmanship has nothing to do with sport then i think your missing the point entirely!!

I don't blame the Spaniards for protesting, they've trained for xxx years for the Olympics and it was a bizarre and potentially grey situation.  When the Spaniards and Italians "jointly" appealed the Italians were represented by "Mr. Jordi Lamarca of Spain" - now I may be wrong but that smells, well, kind of smelly.

Having lost the protest I'd accept it.  The Spaniards have now been sporting and done so.  The Italians (see edit below) sadly are unable to do that.  It's very sad for sailing and sport in general.

Edited slightly later:  From what I've read elsewhere the Italian sailors aren't happy about what's going on, it's the Italian Olympic Committee that has decided to take this to the Court of Arbitration not the Italian sailing team.  Maybe that's why they didn't want to represent themselves at the appeal...

Mike