In the hundreds of sailboat races I’ve been in, I’ve not seen it happen once. The race committee boats help someone out nearly every other race, but I’ve never seen another racer stop to render aid. It’s not callous, it’s just their help isn’t needed.

It really is very rare. But then so is gutting a moose during a sled dog race.

The rule hardly makes sense for short races where the committee boat is always in view. In long distance blue water races things are different.

I have done quite a few long coastal and bluewater international races. I do agree with you, but again, the participating sailboats usually get very far apart relatively early on.