SPEARO

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/boats-marine/yachts/keeler/listing/2728905344?bof=BcPiEokT How bout a modified Ker40?

From my uneducated perspective but having watched both boats sail in real life on the same water that I often also sail on, I agree with Weta's consensus. I also watched Te Aihe sail two practice races on the inner harbour course a couple of weeks ago (and posted a short vid of a mark rounding and subseqent gybe here) and they didnt have any control issues that you mention above, looked to have good tacking and gybing angles when compared to Defiant and got round the course with dry laps. I have no idea whether that means one boat is faster than the other, and they will both be testing all manner of hardware, foils and systems, some will work, some won't = control issues when they try them. I hope the racing is super close so can't be labelled a fan boi of any one team, and I think the arm chair admirals here need to give more weight to the perspectives and insights of what those who have actually watched these boats sail have to say. Cant wait for all the teams to turn up!

They are great, very sea worthy boats. Absolutely truck upwind (provided you have enough weight on the rail), pretty good VMG downwind, but being pretty skinny dont blast reach like modern designs. Can be pretty competitive in windward leewards with a good crew, although being a cruiser / racer I think the winch package is a little underwicked.

Rubbish quality due to iPhone to Youtube, and to not give the spies any details. But gives a pretty good idea of racing geometry from almost an upwind position relative to the 'course'

back to the actual sailing - I watched ETNZ's AC75 sail a simulated race on the inner course this afternoon in 10kn SW breeze. Simulated pre start entry and a couple of laps, using Orakei bouy as the windward mark. I took a 3min video showing last two tacks into the top mark, the rounding (including flying through a fleet of 29ers at the top mark) and first gybe downwind (iPhone camera so no point as they got further away). Any idea how to compress the video from iPhone and load here (seems max 10mb)? I cut in half but still too big. They looked super stable in pretty light breeze, suprisingly big tacking angles though to stay foiling. Were doing dry laps.