Was considering signing up to fish a fancy pay-to-enter, high stakes tournament as a co-angler. After reading this thread, not a d**n chance.
I am glad I am in a good club with boaters that love to see their co catch fish just about as much as they like to catch them themselves. In many cases a boater will tell me they left a specific spot that looks juicy just for me. Of course these are club tournaments where no money (except big bass) is on the table, so I can see how it could be considered different.
Occasionally, I'll get a little excited and make a bad cast (because of wind or odd angle) or a poor choice of cast position relative to the boaters in my club and cast in their lane. I always let them know if I do it by accident, and warn them beforehand and during so that if it continues to just 'front end' me.
Relative to the OP's situation, I don't think you were necessarily in the wrong. In a situation like yours, the boater had to make a choice to fish one side over the other. Part of the added challenge of being a boater, in my opinion, is indeed fishing against the co-angler. Every other boater has a co-angler, so its essentially 'fair'. Honestly, if you get angry because the co-angler hit the crevice you missed after passing it or that you didn't put the boat in position to hit, then don't fish co-angler tournaments. Some of these comments really make it sound like it is such a chore to have a coangler and that you are doing a service to the world. Seriously, where does this end. "I'm gonna fish the bank with a frog first, don't fish the outside weededge." or "I don't know how to skip under docks so I'm just going to fish the outside of them and you don't skip under them."
Yes you are providing the boat (and all of the cost associated with that) and probably paid some extra tournament fees but you already have a HUGE advantage being on the front of the boat (and yes I realize at sometimes it can be extra work and even a disadvantage, but the overall it is way toward advantage). With all that being said, I do realize it is quite a skill to position the boat so the co-angler can make some good casts.
The only instance where I would say that the boater had a right to be upset for the OP, would be if he was working extra hard to make sure the boat was in good position to make sure that you also had a good shot at the same bank he was fishing.