Wrong Decision

 I owe an apology to somebody. We made a wrong decision at the Warmer.

There was an incident pre-start. Protest was shouted - we paused and reached for our flag and there was a simultaneous display of our green flag and the boat shouting "Spinning". 

Seeing the green flag the boat decided not to spin and we didn't take any further actions despite the protesting boat complaining and saying that he now had to spin. That boat was correct and we failed to apply Appendix D 1.3 (b)  Which says "When a boat clearly indicates that she will take a penalty under rule 44.1, she shall take that penalty"

So now we know that it is not a sportsmanship issue - there is a clear rule on the matter. 

The boat misunderstood the green flag - which doesn't necessarily mean no rule was broken, it can mean we didn't see it or we disagree about who broke the rule. It could have been that they saw me reaching for the flag and assumed they were about to get two turns and thought shouting spinning would have reduced the penalty. Also wrong - by the time we get out the red flag they would have had the opportunity to do their turns and it is now Umpire imposed and two turns.

Lesson learnt by this Umpire - next time a boat shouts spinning it had better spin.

My excuse is that D1.3(b) was a new rule introduced in 2021. Previously we had penalised boats that failed to spin under sportsmanship. The boat could have thought no rule had been broken and was trying to take an "insurance" spin. Is it then unsportsmanlike not to take the spin, when Umpires indicate there will be no penalty? That was our mindset, and it was wrong, so another apology.