Team New Zealand have stated they have more equipment to unveil, and are in a position to hold that back. This is a smart play and they have this opportunity by virtue of having a competitive all around package.
2. Defenders Team Oracle USA are already in the Cup Match and don't need to show their hand yet. They will be using their involvement in the qualifying rounds to check in, to test and to learn. They will be looking carefully at what the challengers are doing, in terms of equipment, set ups and technique. They will be putting a huge effort into intel-gathering and will be poring over the telemetry data from all the challengers and their own yacht.
They also have time on their side. While the America's Cup match is only weeks away, they do not have to race after the qualifying series and therefore are not pre-occupied with this in the lead up to the Cup. The deck is stacked in their favour and they likely have some big cards still to play.
3. What can the teams still do to develop their boats?
All teams must have the same hulls, wings, jibs. They can vary the foils (four main foils and unlimited rudders) and on-board control systems. The latter must be thoroughly tried and tested so replacing them would be very risky.
This leaves the focus on foils and rudders. These take months to build so new ones won't be built now. But they may already have other foils and rudders ready to bring out.
To my eye, Team NZ and Oracle have used the same main foils throughout so far - Oracle a non-matching pair and Team NZ a matching pair (if they are different it is too subtle to pick up on TV coverage). I think the other teams have used different foils so they have already put their cards on the table in that respect.
I expect Team Oracle USA will do more testing - including using Team Japan - prior to bringing their third and fourth foils out for the Cup Match. Team New Zealand will want to do the same. If they can win the challenger semi-finals they may not put the third and fourth foil on until the Challenger finals. I do not think they would want to go into the America's Cup without having tested these additional foils in real racing.
4. Thinking back, this strategy is reminiscent of the Team New Zealand 1995 approach where NZL38 was used through the Louis Vuitton Challenger series and then the faster NZL32 was introduced in the finals and Cup Match. This strategy led to a 5 - 0 victory and the America's Cup becoming "New Zealand's Cup".
However, Emirates Team New Zealand 2017 may not have this luxury if they are in a fight to get through the semi-finals and finals of the challenger series.
Oracle will want other challengers to be competitive enough to force Team New Zealand's hand and reveal all their cards as early as possible. Hence the power Oracle has in terms of their partnership with Team Japan. Oracle can continue to use them as a surrogate (remember their boats are identical) gaining both hard data and just as importantly Dean Barker's wisdom and intuition.
Rudders also present an opportunity for development and change. There is no limit on the number, and the aim is to lower drag as much possible while maintaining steerage control. Rudders also provide pitch control, via small downward angled wing foils ("winglets") on the bottom. Thus, while the yachts fly on their main foils, the rudder winglets provide some lift. The teams are able to control the rudder rake fore and aft, enabling them to lift the stern and drop the bow or vice-versa.
What is interesting with these AC50s is that the rules allow teams to use rudder rakes independently on each hull. Remember, these catamarans have two rudders in the water and so they can adjust to have the rudder on one hull providing lift and pushing the bow down while the other one provides the opposite. This is why you see the AC50s flying with the orientation of the bow down and windward hull down - thus the entire yacht is canted to windward.
Team NZ certainly think this mode is fast and we see them adopting this "mode" quite frequently. To a normal sailor's eye this looks strange, but the aerodynamic advantage is significant. (Apologies for getting a little technical with this explanation!)
Bottom line: There is still a long way to go in this regatta, and there are wheels within wheels and games being played on and off the water. This is the America's Cup - would you expect anything less?
Mark Orams, an AUT Professor, was part of two Team New Zealand campaigns
