The assertion that Oracle factored lower wind limits into their decision to pull the postponement card is incredibly far fetched.
Gladwell is making a bunch of noise about wind speed and wind limits and how it benefited the defeneder - somehow trying to make the point that it was all according to Oracle's plan. Its almost as if he's completely forgetting the fact that ETNZ was operating under the same set of rules for the whole regatta.
And that the minimum wind limits were agreed to by all of the competitors about a year prior to the event.
Personally, I thought the ballast-gate penalties were incredibly harsh on Oracle. It was only the surprise twist of the Dalton Rule (the rule put in place that a competitor could be penalized for tarnishing the image of the cup) that allowed the penalty to climb from one (unrelated) series of races to the Cup match. Otherwise, the penalty would have presumably stayed within the confines of AC45 series.
