Although many of the guys came from mono's, good sailors can adapt to new platforms.

Might want to remember that Pete Burling was THIRD in the 2014 A-cat worlds. Like Outterideg, he's also been the Moth world champion; those boats are more like a cat than a mono.

When talking about software and data analytics, I have a HARD time believing that anybody could out "data" Oracle... I mean, really? ORACLE; am I the only one here who knows what Oracle does? Honestly, everybody thinks Microsoft makes the world run, but really, Oracle is more important in terms of the heavy lifting of keeping the lights on.

IMO, the deficit comes down to two things; foil design and system control (wing and boards). The ETNZ foils have a much wider crossover and although may require more trimming are faster and more stable b/c of the way that the work load is divided on board. This ties to the improved leeway performance; since they maintain a narrower flight margin, they could design a lower drag foil that produces equal lift, but needs more foil in the water. Oracle seems to be running foils that produce more lateral lift, but can't fly in the same narrow height grove; as such their vertical foils operate at a higher AoA as evidenced by the increased noise (and therefore higher drag).

Looking at pictures of the foils, I also think that ETNZ has gone for a higher aspect tip shape; notice that Oracle's foils appear to have longer chord length. I have a theory about what is going on here, but not time to type it out.

Lastly, the "automated" systems; it is thought that ETNZ is simply "chasing the dot". Ashby's controller tells him the optimum target and adjusts accordingly. Their elimination of the wing sheets makes me think that most of his adjustments are fine tuning the twist and shape further up the wing at all times. I suspect that Oracle has very similar data, but implemented their approach/systems in a significantly different (more conventional) manner.