In my opinion:
1: 30 years of refinement of the platform
2: Olympic-class development of sails
3: Olympic-class crews
4: Olympic-class research on how to sail the boat fast
No doubt, many boats could have been as fast or faster, but they have not been subject to the same intense research as the T. It doesn't hurt that the design was fast from the start as well, even if there are faster hull shapes today. The 10 foot beam is a 'must' when the wind increases.
I think it could have been even faster with daggerboards instead of centerboards.
Yep, I would agree with all that.
Some expirements with daggers have been done and the boat is quicker up wind, but no-one decided to jump and make a hull with just daggers. William Sunnocks has a set of inserts to make a standard T box take daggers !
