If the 2013 America's Cup seemed like "The Empire Strikes Back," 2017 gave us "Return of the Kiwis." Peter Burling's Luke Skywalker vanquished Larry Ellison's Darth Vader, racking up eight race wins while Oracle could manage only one. Jimmy Spithill and the Oracle crew seemed to succumb to Jedi mind tricks, losing seven of the nine starts, going OCS in two races, sailing out of bounds once, misjudging laylines both upwind and down and falling off their foils in several tacks and gybes.

The Match started out badly for Oracle when they were over the start line early in the first race. The following Saturday, Oracle was again OCS, in Race 5. The Kiwis won the first five races. Oracle got their only win in Race 6, the second race on Saturday 24 June.  On Sunday, in Race 7 Oracle had good speed to weather of the Kiwis, but after an inexplicable turn upwind by Spithill, they crossed the line over a boat length behind and slower than the Kiwis. In the pre-start of Race 8 New Zealand's Peter Burling manage "to hook" Jimmy Spithill and force Oracle almost head to wind. Burling's protest was green-flagged by the umpires, but Burling was able to speed off to lead at Mark 1.

The Kiwis closed out the Match in Race 9 with a demonstration of the boat speed and good handling that had brought them to match point. Oracle managed to win the start and led at Mark 1. The first gybe on leg 2 spelled the end for Oracle. New Zealand's gybe was crisper and they edged ahead, gassing Oracle with turbulence off their wing. They extended their lead and were never threatened, speeding to win the race and claim the America's Cup. After the simultaneous gybes, New Zealand took the lead and extended to close out the Match, reclaiming the America’s Cup.

The Kiwi victory provided a master class in running an America’s Cup campaign. Their role as the lone wolf among the challengers made their achievement all the more impressive.  The combination of sailing skills, innovative design and disciplined management came together in the performance we saw in on the Great Sound.  Through most of the campaign, the team prioritized designing for speed and manoeuvrability rather than on sailing technique. They were confident they could polish their boat handling once they arrived in Bermuda. They also knew that they would continue receiving hardware upgrades all the way through the challenger selection series. In fact the first time they had the boat in its final configuration was 27 hours before the first race of the match.

Intelligent risk taking in the design program paid off handsomely. The pedal driven grinding stations provided more power, which could be used for a fully hydraulic wing trim system. Pedaling also left the hands free so that Blair Tuke could control the foils, leaving Peter Burling to focus on speed and tactics. Their foil design was right at the limit of speed, stability and structural integrity. The long spans and short chords of their light air boards provided speed over a wide wind range, but at the risk of breaking. In fact they did damage those boards right after launching in Auckland. During the challenger racing they were caught out one day with the light air boards in the boat on a high wind day. The young sailing team showed great discipline in sailing conservatively to minimize risk. Even so, hairline cracks developed and the boards were inspected with ultrasound every day.

Wing trimmer Glenn Ashby used twist control more than traveler adjustment. Keeping the angle of incidence of the wing more constant made it easier for foil trimmer Blair Tuke to manage the ride height and stability. All of this was enabled by having more power from the cycle grinders.

The combination of cycle power, separating foil trim from helming and fully hydraulic wing trim allowed manoeuvres that the other teams did not have. When they were able to foil tack the boat on their fourth day of sailing in Auckland, they developed the confidence to stay focused on design and speed rather than sailing technique, counting on their sailing ability to learn to use the speed once they started racing.

The tradeoffs that were made months earlier came together perfectly to deliver a dominating win for Team New Zealand.