Jimmy said they had a big puff which they where able to carry a long way down the course. I just watched a replay of Eurosport and you can see that BMWO was also making quite a lot of course changes, at one point I see them bearing away something like 45 degrees. Shifty conditions are never easy to sail in and I wonder what happened if you would sail 10 races, what the outcome would be.
Yes, as I said if you aren't there at the same time and place, you can't know about wind and waves. And I think you was closest from all of us. However I think that after 10 races BMWO would be similar succesful. The possible wind range of Alinghi seems to small.
Considering the rocking horse behaviour (BMWO did as well upwind), I think that most has to do with hull length (30ft more for BMWO) and hull shape. Alinghi has more reserve volume in the hulls (much more freeboard) and as consequence is rocking more. No big surprise that the larger and heavier boat moves more steady. In theory, BMWO could use its sensors and flap actuators to damp the rocking motion, but this is pure speculation from my side.
