Volvo65 One Design

Volvo one design

from Scuttlebutt Europe today:

Let's Dare To Be Radical

Volvo Ocean Race chief executive Knut Frostad has taken a frank look back at the last edition which finished in July and spoken candidly about his aims for 2013 and beyond in a special New Year's Day interview.

Q: In mid-2012 you announced in Lorient the fundamental switch to a one-design boat model. Six months on, how confident are you that the Race made the right decision with this?

A: I knew this was a bold decision but from the moment we made it, the reactions and feedback I have had from exciting potential teams, the sailors and in particular the sponsors, have been 100% positive.

In fact the more we get into the project the more it makes sense. That said, the project is also complex and demanding on our organisation as we now have added a whole new dimension and area to our team. There is a lot more to it than what was obvious to us when we started.

No one has ever created a true one-design class in high performance offshore racing before and I know why. It is not easy and it is a huge undertaking both financially and in terms of resources to make it all happen on time while working to the smallest possible tolerances.

But we are on track to achieve a great result and I can't wait to see the first boat out of the yard in the end of June 2013...

... Sailing is a beautiful sport, it is dramatic, it is a something so unique and different that I'm confident there is a good place for it going forward. That said, it is also a conservative sport and we must dare to be radical to evolve. It's not enough today to compare yourself to any other sport. You really need to study what people do watch on their iPads or on their TVs and ask yourself what you need to bring yourselves to the fore.

If sailing can make one big change in 2013 it would be to start working on how to tell its stories better for the fans watching. Full interview at www.volvooceanrace.com

 

An update by Vsail on the current status of the Volvo 65 build process.

http://www.vsail.info/2012/11/29/milestones-passed-in-volvo-ocean-65-build/

Team SCA the team with the all women's crew has unveiled their new paint scheme (another pink women's boat what a surprise).

http://www.vsail.info/2013/01/17/team-sca-unveil-design-of-the-future-volvo-ocea-race-boat/

And another article with some details about the new recife team from Brazil.

http://www.vsail.info/2013/01/17/brazilian-state-of-pernambuco-enters-volvo-ocean-race-team-and-capital-city-of-recife-is-first-stopover/

 

damn it - i learned the wrong stuff...
http://www.vsail.info/2013/01/11/onboard-reporters-wanted-for-the-volvo-ocean-race-2014-15/

 

In the recent interview to Seahorse Magazine Guillaume Verdier addressed the possibility of IMOCA One Design:

"That would be like looking at a beautiful open field full of wild flowers and thinking, "Right, let's pour a nice layer of concrete over all this."

This equally applies to VOR One Design.

 

Article on the mast construction which is being under taken at Southern Spars

http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/news/6983_Elite-assembly-line-production-for-the-new-rigging.html

 

Video update by Rick Deppe showing a timelapse of the hull preperation in the mold at Persico and visiting Multiplast to look at the progress on the deck

http://youtu.be/Vr1E35el6s8



The Multiplast Video

http://youtu.be/GJf234wFoqo



The video from Green Marine:

http://youtu.be/GseVcXg6vMg

 

The First hull has been finished at Persico in Italy and the first deck is ready at Multiplast in Brittany. They are preparing to transport them to Green Marine in the UK for final assembly.

http://www.sail-world.com/Australia...65-project-approaching-major-milestone/107188

 

Update on construction progress first boat due to be assembled by June:

http://www.sail-world.com/Australia/Volvo-Ocean-Race---Its-getting-hot-and-sticky-in-southern-England/107734

 

I was wondering if on the new 65's if the teams can use whatever kind of electronic systems they want onboard? If so, if I were one of the teams who are returning like Abu Dhabi or ETNZ (Unofficial) who had the huge budgets from the year before and would be saving a lot with the new one design, or new teams wanting to invest, I would take/ buy a VO70 or really any offshore boat and test and make technology advances so when you get the boat you can set them up and get going. Things like PUMA's Doppler Velocity Log (http://www.thedailysail.com/offshore/11/60211/0/pumas-secret-weapon), or placing hundreds of data points throughout the boat like in the America's Cup nowadays.

 

I have not posted every video update as some were pretty tedious but I did like this one on the construction of the cordage for the VO65's.

http://youtu.be/zLY_nqwauUA

 

Volvo 65

Nice article in the August Seahorse magazine by Alon Finkelstein(of Farr Yacht Design) about the boat and the lifting keel among some other things.
Not a lifting keel in the "normal" sense but a canting keel installed with a 5 degree keel pin incline so that as the keel is moved it begins to develop vertical lift: (much more in the article)
The Good:
"An inclined keel pin has a number of positive effects on performance. First, it creates a large vertical lift force on the keel fin which reduces the effective
displacement of the yacht, which in turn reduces wetted surface and the drag of the entire yacht system.
Second, even when canted the keel fin creates a positive side force which reduces leeway angle.
As leeway is reduced the amount of asymmetry also reduces, providing a substantial associated reduction in form and residuary resistance."
The Bad:
"All of these are positive performance factors; however, they are countered by the large heeling moment generated by the additional loading on the keel which must be overcome by depowering the sails ,or by increasing bulb weight."

 

a couple of questions i can not figure out- would the bulb be set well forward on the foil so as to twist the bottom of the foil back into a neutral angle of attack so it is not lifting and reducing the RM? and how does raking the keel forward make it create a positive side force while canted?

 

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The "positive side force" comes as a result of the lift the foil generates as it is canted to weather. They want the vertical lift -thats why they do it and have found the decrease in RM due to the lift is not as much a penalty as the reduction in wetted surface is an advantage. The angle of the pin retaining the canting keel translates the forward rake of the keel when vertical to lift when canted because as it is rotated the foil comes closer and closer to the 5 degree angle of the retaining pin. In other words, as the keel is canted the foil begins to have a 5 degree positive angle of incidence, which creates lift. Clever if it works.
The guys that designed CBTF came up with a canting keel fin with a flap on it so that when fully canted with the flap up, the keel fin would generate downforce adding to the RM. Never built that I know of.

 

eric sponberg has designed one open 60 back in the late 90s with such an canting-keel-fin-with-flap arrangement...
http://www.sponbergyachtdesign.com/Project Amazon SNAME.pdf
http://www.sponbergyachtdesign.com/
strange that you do not know of, since he is a regular "force" on this board...

 

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Good point Capt Vimes-thanks!

PS-the CBTF keel fin was designed to cant something like 50-60 degrees each side-not sure Erics cants enough to be used for downforce to windward-I'll ask him.