Looking all but sealed up. Needed to win both races today...
It's hard to tell from only seeing the boats on TV, but according to Gary Jobson, the Kiwi hulls are rounder, fuller, and floats higher, so it tacks faster. He said the Oracle boat is skinny (you see how much more often they dig their bows in) and it slows down more every time they tack.
Floats higher? hah. The self tacking jib has a good bit to do with it too. You can watch the oracle jib sheet out past an upwind setting and get reeled in as the boat gets moving. The NZ jib, on a self tacker, hits it's other side and stops and helps bring the bows down. According to Ken Read, we don't yet have these self tacking setups on modern boats.
I also think NZ is doing something different with their daggerboards in the tacks. Oracle just gets a weird bow-down attitude when it is head to wind...it's strange. I've seen them submerge the bow on tacks and I can't figure out what's going on.
The self tacking jib probably helps marignally in and of itself. The real adavantage comes from having the 2 guys oracle has gringing on the front sail available to work the foils and mainsail so their boat attitude stays true and the main comes over faster.
