World Domination?

Big changes have been announced for the Volvo Ocean Race. TOBY HEPPELL gets the details from Mark Turner.

There was no small amount of build-up to the announcement on Thursday, 18 May by the Volvo Ocean Race of its plans for the 2020 edition of the famous round the world race. Much of this discussion focused on whether the race would make a switch to multihulls. Certainly the promise from the VOR HQ was for ‘one of the biggest shakeups in the history of the race’, which clearly pointed to significant change.

So it was with some surprise we were informed by Volvo Ocean Race CEO, Mark Turner, that the boats would remain as a one-design monohull for 2020, albeit a foil-assisted craft of 60ft. Not exactly the ‘multi over mono’ revolution we had been expecting.

That said, Turner and his team are not known for doing things by halves and, beyond the initial choice of boat, there was plenty else to cause excitement that also came to light in the announcement.

NEW BOATS 

Putting to one side the multihull anticipation, the newly announced design is itself a step forward. The organisation has enlisted the services of Guillaume Verdier to produce the foil-assisted monohull, which should be an order of magnitude faster than the current fleet of Volvo Ocean 65s. Despite the slightly shorter length, the new boat will carry more sail, have a deeper canting keel and will be lighter.

It should also be challenging to keep at maximum speed for a reduced crew (likely to be between five and seven sailors – one of a number of key decisions that have yet to be finalised). So we’ll almost certainly see a racier version of the event than in its current form.