Ang,  "I would quite like to see the construct of RRS 44 changed so that time for a boat to take an on-water penalty ran from the hail of 'protest'."

1. taking a penalty in accordance with RRS 44;
2. taking a post-race penalty in accordance with RRS T1;  or
3. accepting, subject to any request for re-opening or Appeal, the decision of a protest committee penalising her.

At first reading, I was nodding in support, but then  thought how difficult it is now to convey the idea that a fouled boat can't tell another boat that broke an unexonerated-rule "don't worry about it" .. or worse .. "you owe me one". 

We also have boats who don't take the rules seriously and never hail protest

 .. and others maybe because of social pressures or their perceived status on the water.

I'm afraid that the 2 points above will be a viscous cycle even more so than now.

 There's not enough information in the diagram to infer that Yellow tacked too close (or more specifically, Green had to alter course to avoid Yellow while tacking).

What kind of boats are we talking about?  If you're talking about a 80 foot cruising monohull, or a slow tacking catamaran, perhaps it's too close.  Are we talking about a Laser or 470, both of which complete a tack in well less than a boat length?  Then very likely it’s not too close.

• Boats are shown as same size, so we can expect similar performance.
• Boats are symmetrical spinnaker boats (FWIW), not cats or rack dinghies, but not Lasers or Optis either.
• Boats have tacking angles and close hauled wind angles shown by the grid lines.

How fast were they going?  Also greatly impacts the answer.  If these are for example, Tech Dinghies, which both tack quickly and go very very slowly, it’s not anywhere near too close.  If we're talking 505s, 49ers, or A Cats, then Yellow was not only too close,

 but likely needs a trip behind the wood shed.

 If we're talking small modern keelboats, say a J80, it's likely still not too close. They do specify light air, so I suppose much is happening "slowly", but that makes which boats you're talking about even more important. You can tack a Laser in no wind in a boat length.  Try that in a Lightning. Whereas an A Cat can be going 11-12 knots in "light air" of 6-8 knots, so nothing in particularly "slowly".

The PC has to ask sufficient questions to determine the facts.  We don't have them here.

My inclination, absent any other information, would be to say it's on Green to show that Yellow tacked too close.

I personally don't see that in the diagram.  Absent a good explanation, I wouldn't be able to find sufficient information to indicate Yellow tacked too close.

Why don't I see it? At point 2, Yellow appears to already be nearly head to wind, and Green is over 3 boat lengths away.  Most boats I can think of would be able to complete the last half of a tack in less than 2 boat lengths.  Unless they're very slow, or very slow to turn.

We can't really infer point "2.5" because they didn't draw it. We don't have that information.

So if I were on the PC, my questions would be around when Yellow crossed head to wind, and where Green was at that time.

 A couple of boat lengths is plenty of time to avoid a collision on virtually any boat.

Thus, I'd say the burden is on Green.

Whether Green saw them or not, also irrelevant.  That's a safety/seamanship question, not a rules question.

 If Green has a large Asym, and isn't keeping track of their fleet, leading to crash maneuvers, that's not a rules issue. It's a seamanship issue.

Generally, we're all bringing a lot of preconceived assumptions here based on the boats we have most experience with.