Aeroplanes stopped using "soft wings" wayyy back after WW1, about 1920 or so because the CL is greater with a solid wing vs. a one layer thick "soft sail" type ragwing WW1 biplane. Even hang gliders and windsurfers have switched over to the sails with cambered battens and a "fat" wing.

The tradeoff is supposed to be that you cannot adjust the amount of camber over a wide wind range with a rigid wing sail vs. a soft sail, but as you saw, BMWO had a fix for that with the midwing slot and the adjustable flap. And then there is weight, the wing sail weighs more and has lots more moving parts, so reliability is always an issue.

The wing was more efficient as we saw, but again, why, when there is only -one- other boat in the race, and you are in front of them, would you allow them to duck you on a starboard cross??

That's Match Racing 101.

There's only one other boat in the race. Your job is to hammer them, and then hammer them again, whenever possible, moreso if you know they are faster than you and you are one race down in a 3 race series.

So why didn't Alinghi take the shot when they had it?