I used to race Hobie Cats so I do have a bit of affinity for these boats, although the old ones, particularly the previous turn of the century stuff were really beautiful. But the monohulls had pretty much maxed out any performance gains to be made when the boat is hampered by the hull speed no matter what you do. The last America's Cup with the trimarans was interesting and had to be even more expensive than the catamarans.
The downwind runs on a reach are certainly a lot more exciting than the old spinnaker driven boats. The wings are quite effective. The lay lines appear to be a lot narrower than with the cloth sails, too.
The cost of these things makes Formula 1 look like a bunch of pikers!
However, I love the head on view of the cats when they look like the original War of the Worlds' Martian machines comin' at ya!
Bare