What were the AC 'box rules' going into this regatta?
Seems they were allowed to change their foils, it was mentioned several times in that last race that Oracle had 'added some tip length' to their light air foils.
Was there a restriction on max foil size?
Still, I thought the last event (2013 in SFO) was much more exciting with more wind and more high speed sailing, (45kts vs 22 in Bermuda) with more lead changes, etc. and the tide in/out of the bay made picking the right side of the course so much more important as well.
This light air regatta in Bermuda about put me to sleep on most races. I wonder exactly where the Kiwi's will hold the next AC regatta.
The AC box rule was a one design wing (Sam mentioned earlier that this was just the leading edge/mast portion and that the flaps were open to individual design). I do know that the controls inside the wing were customizable. The hulls and beam shells were one design but you could customize the cockpits, fairings, and controls. The daggerboard foils were COMPLETELY open to development (they could be as long as desired) but teams could only build a limited number of foils - which INCLUDED models designated specifically for destruction testing. The foil itself by use and count was defined by a percentage of the original foil which is why they came up with the removable tip sections to be able to modify the foil to narrow down the wind range selection. You could really be up the creek if you significantly damaged a daggerboard and there was a bit of a challenge and some mouthing off back and forth about that when TNZ broke one during training in New Zealand.
I think the OD leading edge mast section was a stroke of brilliance because it prevented the teams from building them just strong enough to withstand sailing forces - You'll note that TNZ's mast didn't break when they capsized which is important to the safety of an overturned boat.