Volvo Ocean 65
|
|
| Designer | Farr Yacht Design |
|---|---|
| Draft | 4.78 m (15.7 ft) |
| LOA | 22.14 m (72.6 ft) |
| LWL | 20.00 m (65.62 ft) |
| Beam | 5.60 m (18.4 ft) |
The Volvo Ocean 65 is the successor to the Volvo Open 70 yacht used in past editions of the Volvo Ocean Race. It was announced at a conference in Lorient, France during a stopover in the 2011–12 Volvo Ocean Race. The yacht is used in the 2014–2015 and the 2017–2018 editions. The 2014-2015 Volvo Ocean Race was the first one-design event.
The yacht was designed by Farr Yacht Design, to be a cheaper and safer alternative to the ageing and expensive Volvo Open 70. After many safety concerns in the 2011–12 Volvo Ocean Race, many began doubting the safety of the Volvo Open 70, due to many designers opting for faster designs, while failing to meet safety requirements. Current Volvo Ocean Race CEO, and four time competitor Knut Frostad hinted at a new boat design to address the current safety concerns in a statement he made during a press conference on April 4, 2012 stating: "It's important that we don't leap to any conclusions about why these breakages have happened. Some of them are clearly not related. However, we will take the current issues into account as we make decisions on rules and technology we will be using in the future." Frostad also went on to say "We have already put in a lot of work, discussing with teams, designers and all other stakeholders about the boats and the rules we will use in the future, and we expect to be in a position to announce a decision on that before the end of the current race."
On June 28, 2012 Knut Frostad revealed the design at a press conference in Lorient during a stopover in the 2011–12 Volvo Ocean Race. In becoming a one-design event, the new boats are hoped to "significantly reduce the cost of mounting a campaign and bring the size of the fleet to 8-10 boats for future editions." Frostad went on to state an entire campaign for future editions of the race would be around €15 million, and a "ready to sail" boat, including pre-race and race sails would be around €4.5 million in comparison to the €30-40 million region a current campaign can fall into.
...
Wikipedia