Personally, I don't think the black flag is called for with this fleet. It's not part of the catamaran racing culture in North America.
Only once have I ever seen it used at a major catamaran event, and that was 13 years ago.
Um, wasn't PU using it at one of the 16NAs in California not too long ago?
I know we discussed it at the 17/18 event in Geneva (you, me and PU), he was saying that ISAF, Olympics and other major classes were pushing to use it more (he was discussing the scenarios of how to make it unstick with an AP, etc.).
I'm not remotely shocked, and even without being there, I know that Tom's playbook is Prep-I-Black (as Beth mentioned). I've worked with him a lot, and attended his seminars for years. Unless the line is grossly unfair due to an RC issue, you're not going to get rolling generals with him on the course.
For anyone here who isn't aware, Tom is an IRO, runs circles at the OCR, and trained the RC for the Olympics in China. I've never met anyone (other than PU and Luigi) who is more pro-sailor than Tom.
Mike
There was the same fleet, almost the same size (only 4 fewer boats) in Racine last year and there was only 1 general recall.
Then again, we only had 5 races in 5 days due to the light air.
I know Tom, too and I agree he is "customer focused". I'm not surprised he's gone P-I-BF - I'd probably do it too.
I'm just saying it's not part of the catamaran culture in NA. The event I saw it used at was the 1998 Hobie 16 NAs in Rehoboth. PU didn't even have a flag - he used a black plastic garbage bag.
BTW, there are some classes that absolutely forbid it (Snipes, Thistles, Flying Scots to name a few) - even on an international level.
Other classes (Etchells, Melges) use the Z flag and the I over Z successfully, along with a mid-line signal boat to control aggressive fleets. Hank Stuart and Wayne Bretsch ran a 100-boat J-22 Worlds in Rochester without a single black flag.
Bottom line: if the competitors don't mind it being used, then Tom's doing the right thing.
