ALL ABOARD FOR THE RIDE

IMOCA 60S ARE DESIGNED FOR SOLO RACING, SO WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PUT A FULL CREW ON BOARD TO RACE 2,000 MILES? MATTHEW SHEAHAN REPORTS

- MATTHEW SHEAHAN

How much faster could an IMOCA 60 go if it were really pressed? Not in bursts, not for brief peak speeds, but at a sustained average pace over days or more. In other words, how much faster would they go if they could be pushed harder, for longer, than a single-handed sailor could cope with at one stretch?

It’s a question that has been discussed for some time, even more so since the 60-footers started to fly five years ago. Vendée Globe sailors frequently comment that they’re often sailing their boats at well below 100%, because they simply cannot keep up the intensity of going full-bore when they’re sailing alone. But if you could keep your foot hard to the floor, day in, day out – just as a full crew would be able to – how much faster would one of these globe scorching monohulls go? And would their notoriously fragile structures be able to stand the pace?

As soon as The Ocean Race organisers announced that the IMOCA 60 fleet would be invited to join the VO65s in the fully crewed multi-stage race around the world (formerly the Volvo Ocean Race), speculation ramped up. How could you fit a full crew into a boat designed for one or occasionally two? Just how many people is ‘fully crewed’ anyway? What would the crew roles be? And what would you do about the autopilot? Many of the top solo sailors point to the fact that their advanced pilot systems can now steer an IMOCA 60 faster than a human at times. Putting a full crew on board, along with the associated weight of people and provisions, and then making them hand steer, could actually slow the boats down. (Come The Ocean Race, autopilots will be allowed on the IMOCA 60s although details as to the limit of the pilot’s intelligence are still being discussed.)