How does a race conclude, and what do the Judges at the Finish do?

• Finishing: a crew has finished when the bow of its boat reaches the finish line. The race is valid even if the crew is incomplete, but a coxed boat finishing without its coxswain is excluded.
• Race in order: the Umpire checks that no crew is objecting, then shows a white flag to the crews and then to the Judge at the Finish, who acknowledges with a white flag or white light. After that, no further objections are accepted from the crews in that race. The race is concluded when the Umpire so indicates or otherwise confirms the result.
• Race not in order: the Umpire shows a red flag to the crews and then the Judge at the Finish, and tells them the decision. The Judges do not announce the official result until the Umpire has decided.
• Judges at the Finish: they determine the order in which the bows cross the line, list the crews in finish order, check the result sheet and announce "race (number) official", which authorises publication. The senior Judge signs the official record. There should generally be at least two judges, one of them senior.
• Photo-finish: in a close finish the Senior Judge decides the order from the photo-finish picture. Systems under 100 frames per second are not suitable.
• Times: recorded to 1/100th of a second in principle.
• Dead-heat: declared when the order is too close for any difference to be determined; the By-Law to Rule 83 sets the re-row or draw procedure by round.
• Exclusion call: an excluded crew is told "(name of crew) - (reason) - red Card - Exclusion!"

Sources: Rules 82, 83, 99 and Appendix 13.