In INTRODUCTION of the rules, discretionary penalty [DP] is described and guidelines for them refer to the World Sailing website. I need help because I can't find any guidelines on the site and I couldn't find help in the World Sailing Judges Manual either. What am I missing?
12.1 Flag I (RRS30.1) and Flag Z (RRS30.2) will not be used.
Ange, I observed this at a recent International event and I thought it was harsh not to give the competitors at least one chance at "I". It ended up on the first day of the regatta a very strong current was setting the fleet over the line causing crowding and stalling at the gun. One of the very serious contenders for the regatta was "UFD" two or three times the first day. Any idea why this would be a policy?
I Flag. Despite being referred to as a 'penalty', an I Flag start is not a penalty: it is a 'traffic control measure', which decongests an unavoidably crowded starting line, and can facilitate accounting for OCS boats returning. It has undesirable consequences on other than a short starting line, in it induces boats to crowd the ends, because the middle of the line, does incur a penalty on an OCS boat in having to sail further towards the ends, than boats nearer the ends.
Z Flag. Olympic and WS Championship events are predominatly one desigh, and given the marketing department's insistence on instant gratification, there is no point in replacing turns penalties, the effect of which is immediately apparent on the water, with scoring penalties, which require after race calculation.