It is important not just at top level but through all the sport, through all age groups right down to teaching our standards to newcomers in the new areas of the world. No responsible coach would teach their sailors to lie because of both moral standards and it is against the Rules. Yet some situations can cause real moral dilemmas for sailors and coaches when the rule broken seems minor compared to the penalty of disqualification and overall position in the regatta. Rumours against the professional standards of coaches arise when race officials isolate coaches from the process of regatta management. The decision to lie or not is the individual's responsibility - they have to live with themselves for the rest of their lives.
People have respect for each other.
This supports the spirit of the rules. If we can make agreements like this about mistakes, it keeps it friendly. The sailors must decide the most fun way to sail. Sailors who lie do not win in the end. If someone is really bad, he may win by lying once or twice but the other sailors as a group will make sure that he doesn't lie again because he gets a bad name.