Something to never do

I thought I had seen all crossing situations but...

Last night in the Wed Night, I was going down wind to the leeward mark, sails on port side, wind sightly on starboard to where I was planning to gybe to starboard to round the mark about 50 yds ahead.

2 monohulls that were 10 boat lengths ahead at the windward that were trying to reach downwind were going to cross on starboard and decided to attack. When one yelled

Hobie don't you know what starboard means

. I said

yes

, released the mast, the sails popped to starboard and yelled

leeward, resuming proper course

. They did not make the mark.

When I saw the cross, I ran through the possibilities and that one was not reasonable.