Oracle Team USA launched their first test boat over a year ago in San Francisco. The first test boat had only one pedestal per hull since it was designed when the AC62 Class Rule was still in effect. Remember that the AC62 was to have had eight crew with three pedestals per hull.
When Oracle arrived in Bermuda in May 2015, the test boat still had only one pedestal. The wing trimmer was in a separate cockpit and the pushbutton control panels were on the inboard side of the cockpits, as shown in the photo below. Remember that these test boats will never race, do not need to meet any measurement rule and have no restrictions on batteries or other stored energy to operate the hydraulic pumps.
By late Fall 2015, Oracle had launched their second test boat and modified the first one. They added a second pedestal and reconfigured the cockpits. They also moved the pushbutton controls to the outboard edge of the cockpit. Two other details to note are the new wing winch design by Harken and a hydraulic ram for daggerboard cant, external to the hull. More on this below.
