I remember the garbage bag well, and I agree that it hasn't traditionally been part of the NA culture. For a long time, that's what we called the black flag starts (I still refer to them as such): garbage flag starts. Maybe it's time to change...

Ding's right, with the appropriate penalty flag, it's amazing how quickly the fleet figures things out.

Don't get me wrong, Tom is definitely not a one-trick pony, and would certainly prefer the fleet to get it right under P or I at worst.

In addition to those classes (and preferences) you mention, there are many classes, Stars and Lasers in particular, that don't want to see anything other than P then straight to black. Stars lean more to black-only.

Mid-line boats are a mixed blessing. We've been using 4-boat lines with I flags at major Opti events (think 300+ boat fleets here, with round-robin starts of 80-100 per start). No generals, but a lot of delays, even with a separate finish line.

I'm sure that we've all noticed that they're also using bow numbers and a pin boat, so I'm sure that if the I-flag isn't working, there's a surge right before the start (which a mid-line boat won't fix). Tom does prefer square lines, where those of us who learned under PU prefer pin-favored; but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that the fleet is being a bit aggressive, especially in the lighter breezes...

Mike

EDIT: Was that PU at Rehoboth that year? I thought we had a guest RO for some reason.