Nice contrast Garda! This is a good way to define where you are - take it to the extreme and see how it looks from there.

There is certainly something about the hydraulic systems that disconnects the sailors from direct motion on the boats that bothers me. I have had some hesitation in accepting it and the general concept has been a little hard to sell to non-sailor engineers that I work with. I have mixed feelings about it, honestly....I started to say that I didn't think that they could control these boats without it - but the AC40(42?) seemed to do just fine...I would support eliminating the hydraulics for direct mechanical control.

That said, the level of computer control on the boats is on the cusp of getting out of hand too and I definitely do not want to see the level of involvement increase.