Bass Pundit

Explain this to me : At the recent Bassmaster's Elite Series Tournament at Santee Cooper Kevin Van Dam and Alton Jones were disqualified for breaking the rules. (For background click on names). For more background read here

Here are the applicable rules:
Rule 3: "During both the official practice and the tournament, a competitor may not have the assistance or advice of anyone for the purposes of locating or catching bass, nor enter the tournament waters with anyone who has been on the tournament waters during the off-limits period including, but not limited to, a professional guide, state or federal wildlife agency employee, or any other person deemed an "expert" on these tournament waters by the tournament director, unless they are a competitor in the tournament."

Rule 12: "In pro-am type events, pros will fish from the front deck, non-boaters from the rear deck, no exceptions. Non-boaters are only allowed to drive the boat in emergency situations in both practice and competition with the exception of loading and unloading from trailers."

Now in Kevin's case the "non-boater" who was "a competitor" drove the boat in a non-emergency situation and that garnered the DQ. I think this punishment was harsh and unnecessarily severe, but clearly KVD broke the rules.

In Alton Jones case he was disqualified because his son "Little Alton" was on the front deck spotting fish. In light of both rule 3 and 12 Alton was in violation of the rules. "Little Alton" was not a "competitor in the tournament" thus helping his dad find fish would put him in violation of the rule 12 and being on the front deck in violation of rule 3.

However, I have learned that angler Randy Howell was looked into for violating the rules but was not disqualified. According to the story at Bassfan this what happened:

On the first day of practice I had my brother-in-law practicing with me. We got hung up on a stump, and it was one of those situations. He cranked it up to get me off the stump and idle me over in an emergency situation, which is legal

Now never mind the definition of emergency situation or not, Randy clearly admits he was practicing with his brother in law who was not a "competitor" in the tournament. Should not Randy Howell have been guilty of breaking Rule 3?

I just do not see how it is legally allowed for a boater to fish with a non-boater who is not also a competitor. Someone explain it to me, please?