J Porter, I don't agree that it would be strictly proper to abandon. Indeed, ending a race where only one boat manages to start correctly would be less fair, not moreso. If safe to do so, that one boat should be given the chance to sail in the race where they started better than anyone else.

As I note below, it's possible the RC is not able to manage that recall, but giving it a try is the most fair thing to do.

We are all taught that you can call even an entire fleet OCS if you know them all to be over the line but the reality is that calling most of a fleet OCS is often unfair, and more often will infuriate most of the fleet.  So the RO is very likely to blow the race off.  Abandoning is better than a general recall, but why would a jury want to find fault with the RO's view that the start would have been unfair?

On a lighter real politik note, I have heard of a case where 90% of a fleet of racers who were powerful locally were called OCS in a race.  The jury backed the RO, but the OA never asked him back to participate in subsequent years.  

@Niko, I'm not sure abandoning after the fact is in the cards anyway, you must take into account the impact to the racers that sailed that next start properly.  If I asked for redress, it's because I was impacted. so say if the restart was ugly and I finished last, I now have grounds to ask. Redress may be average points for that race, rather than undoing it for all the other boats. You are righting a wrong, necessarily by deleting completed races for one redress. In this case only one boat started properly, it would be a tough hill to climb to argue you would have come back from the OCS had you sailed it out, but I suppose you could try..

Assuming that signalling general recall was an improper action by the race committee, RRS 61.4(b) requires a boat' score or place in a race or series to have been made, significantly worse through no fault of her own.

I don't think I buy the argument that a boat’s place or score in the restarted or resailed race coul  be made worse by the general recall.  They had as much chance to start advantageously as ever  other boat in the race.

We're getting int  what if territory here, but maybe, if the restarted race didn't run (was abandoned, or passed the 'no warning signal after' time) and boats lost a discard, so losing the discard was caused by the delay caused by the improper general recall, you could say a boat's series score was made worse and give redress, which might be average points to all boats, and the race to count in the series.

The truth is that the OCS procedure can easily create unfairness - who is where when signalled, how fast it's signalled - by affecting when each boat can clear the line.  So blowing off a start largely blown up by the racers is to me a better option than pushing on.

@Tom, Everyone is signaled at the same time X-Flag up with sound. 

Long long ago in a galaxy far far away, my time in College Sailing, the late, great Tufts coach, Kenny Legler, was famous for this.  His philosophy on OCS was that a general recall rewards the people who did not start properly, and punishes the people who did start properly.  So it was the RCs responsibility to be in a place to be able to identify the boats who were OCS.  There was no excuse to not be able to identify them. The only reasons for a general recall was a procedural errors or a major wind shift or the like. Not be able to identify a boat OCS was simply unacceptable.

While racing at Tufts, it was not strange to hear a hail after a start, "Everyone is over except 7 and 11," in a 20 boat fleet.

Years later at Key West Race Week I heard people in the Melges 24 fleet grumbling that the PRO had called around 60 boats in a 100 boat fleet OCS during the first race. They were actually rounding the windward mark as the VHF was still having bow numbers read off.  My first question, "who's the PRO? Legler?"  And in fact it was. Surprise surprise, that didn't happen again.  Everyone was sure to start properly.

If you ask me, Ken was right about this.  It's one of those things that Race Sense gets very right.

J Porter, your point is well taken.

And Dustin, all, I freely admit that my opinion is also strongly influenced by Kenny Legs. Indeed I was channeling him all those years ago in my failed attempt to call ~14/18 boats over in a college race. For sure there are excuses for amateur/club RC's. We cannot all be Legler, but we can darn well try!

I wasn’t calling out the RO and I don’t believe I made any indication they even erred in my OP. My ask was in a situation such as this, what might redress, if any, look like? I’m genuinely curious and not intending to call out any individual. 

Maybe, but that's not what the RO said. Best case argument for the RO is that it was informational not official or literal information.