Outside assistance

A light hearted question: A sailor discovers mid-race that he has taken his mobile phone afloat with him and stops mid-race to pass it over to the Committee Boat. Has he received outside assistance?

The safety boat retrieves your sponge after a capsize and hands it back. Outside assistance?

Assistance too difficult to spell, maybe?

Here's an example of outside assistance, it's effect and a subsequent successful protest.

It was back in the days i was travelling beyond the ice wall to the land of nose bleeds, Derwent Water, (the lake district one) I needed a result for the Ntional series and was doing OK but there was a young local hot shot kid, fast light and quicker than me board speed wise so all he had to do was follow me about, which he'd done a couple of times and it was the last race.

Last beat to the finish he'd just got ahead again and was covering, all i could do was sail him past the mark in the hope that being stupid as he was he'd keep the cover on too long and I could dive back to the line. It was working exactly has I'd hoped when a rib came out with his family in and they started screaming at him to tack, tack! johnny tack! you've gone too far! they cried, So we both tacked for the line crossing together and it was a split decision that I felt went his way because of his local hero status, but..

They carried on crying after the protest for clear outside assistance, I felt bad about it, but, he would have lost left to his own devices and i hadn't driven half way across the known universe for my health.

Edited by iGRF - 10 Dec 15 at 11:15am

Rupert,

 You said 'Assistance too difficult to spell, maybe?' Or it this a laudable attempt to use simple English that will be understood by the vast majority of users of the Racing Rules, who do not English as their first language.

Gordon