Opposite: the VO65s currently used in the Volvo are wet… the VO70s that preceded them were insane. This is Ken Read’s Il Mostro racing in the 2008/09 race in which she finished runner-up behind Ericsson 4, skippered by Torben Grael and managed by Brisius’s company Atlant Ocean Racing. The use of the Imoca 60 (above) in the 2021 race looks certain, albeit with modifications yet to be thrashed out between Volvo and the Imoca class. But there is a conundrum… with more than a few Volvo sailors concerned that the beefing-up these boats will require to withstand being raced hard fully crewed may render them uncompetitive racing singlehanded?
not your core experience it is hard to make decisions. So their view now is we should not be the owner. We should be a demand- ing customer and sponsor of the race. SH: Is the current plan for Volvo to retain naming rights for the next race in 2021? RB: We have separate agreements with each of the two companies on their com- mercial rights going forward for 2021, after which they have certain options to continue. Will they be the naming rights sponsors? We can bring in other sponsors now and we are working towards a change in the name eventually. SH: Using the Volvo 65s for another race, while choosing a new boat as well? RB: Over last winter and spring we devel- oped a boat class study for the future which involved looking at the whole sport. We soon recognised that the Imoca class, which has evolved over many years, could be a good way forward. There is an eco- system around it; there are teams who are running their projects year after year. Above all, it is a great offshore class and great offshore boat and this race is all about ocean racing; so it feels natural to explore that possibility thoroughly. From a corporate and governance point
of view that serves both the interest of the Volvo Ocean Race and the interests of the Imoca 60 class who want to both expand
internationally and find a crewed event. In that process naturally the question
was raised at times: should we keep the 65 class as well? It was not something we had planned, but now we are talking about it with people both inside and outside the current race, asking them, ‘If you have the 65 or not the 65 class, how would that affect your interest in entering the race and your capability to enter the race?’ SH: The winner of the previous race, Ian Walker, yesterday told us that he felt the existing Imoca 60 would last about two hours fully crewed in the Volvo Ocean Race out of Lisbon, say. Various of the current VOR skippers have pointed out what would have to be strengthened on the boats, the bow, the mast and so on. One boat is sailing solo with the autopilot steering for much of the time, and the other is being driven hard all the time. RB: The Imoca class has been around for many years – you would assume that some designers have been involved in the class for a long time, during which there have been numerous iterations. When we launched the VO70 class for 2005 we designed the first boats very quickly and then we rush-built them. Others boats were launched late. Within a few days of the race start in Vigo half the fleet were heading back to shore or were in trouble.
It would surprise me if a similar thing
would happen with a class that has been around for as many iterations as the Imoca 60. If you are a designer and you work with a group of sailors from this race who know how they want to sail the boat then you would get a reasonably strong boat. Over the coming months, but as quickly
as possible, we want to bring knowledge- able people from the Volvo Race together with people from the Imoca class and agree the right rule changes that should ultimately go into the VOR Notice of Race in terms of equipment, safety and reliability. So you can sail the VOR crewed for maximum performance, but with rela- tively inexpensive modifications you can sail the same boat single or double-handed as an Imoca boat. But the dual use is vital. SH: These boats don’t have a lot of crew space, will there be room for an OBR and two-women crew? RB: Yes, the concept is that there should be a sufficient number of crew onboard to sail the boat as close to 100 per cent per- formance as possible but no more. When you consider that the goal is to sail the boat as fast as you can, the question becomes how many crew do you need for that and how many crew can you fit? This is part of the discussion between the experts of the Volvo Ocean Race andw
SEAHORSE 53
BENOIT STICHELBAUT
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