Vo70

It is hard to argue with a rule that has put the fleet within 50M of each other after 4000 M of racing.

When was the last time a boat sailed from last by 200+ miles to second?

I hope they tweak the rule a bit so the boats are more reliable for the next time around (allowing two boat testing might have prevented some of the failures).

The format is good, the boats are exciting to watch, and the racing is close.

I didn't like the change from a single around the world race at first. I have to admit that as far back as I can remember, the Whitbread was pretty much decided by the time they got to the horn. The W60 and VO60 rules closed it up, but the VO70 rule and the VOR format change has done an even better job.

 

That means it can happen again.... Fantastic boats...but scary boats too.

Spoken like a Farr Man

http://www.bymnews.com/new/content/view/25705/48/

Volvo is a brand that means safety. The design rules for these VO70 boats anticipated the fact that designers would push the envelop, Farr being the most likely to do so owing to its desire to support fixed fins, which Star has now become, and owing to iFarr's dominance in the VO60s. On a positive note, Farr has made appology. We can discuss. The design rules for the VO70s anticipated all the worse case senarios. Lets give the rule makers some credit. Lets see Farr make it work rather than abandon movable ballast, as is in their nature.

Frank L. Mighetto

 

What are you talking about:?: :?: :?:

 

oh great, you had to ask him.

 

ROTFLMAO!!!

Paul B, meet mighetto

Got some popcorn? This might be fun

 

You will not get any useful answer from Mighetto, because he doesn't know! And worse: He doesn't know that he doesn't know!

 

Quotes From The Boats

Jason Carrington, Ericsson Racing Team

Mike Sanderson, ABN Amro One skipper

 

Quotes From The Boats

"The problem is the boats are so fast they become air born much like an offshore power boat, crashing hard into the next wave. The sound down below is deafening and the motion is just outrageous. Multihulls may go faster but they are more elastic and have a bigger margin to move around. These boats are stiff and they crash into the sea like a giant fly squat, with little give in the structure. I am sure all the numbers stack up, but if the designers and structure guys had been on this boat for that period they would have been horrified."
~Jason Carrington, Ericsson Racing Team


"Today has just been one of those days that the Volvo 70 was designed for, reaching along in breezes from 15 to 22 knots pretty much always at least matching wind speed. As I am writing this we are doing 21.7 knots at 95 true wind angle in 19.5 knots of wind. Numbers like that a couple of years ago just weren't achievable in anything other then a Multihull or a super Maxi such as Mari-Cha IV. Every now and then the rule makers stumble on a special boat, quite clearly just lots of thing's just must be in the right proportion. I for one am looking forward to many more years of racing Volvo 70's and now that the excitement level is proven and the new class is proven, I think we should be looking forward to getting twice as many boats on the start line for the next edition of the Volvo Ocean Race."
~Mike Sanderson, ABN Amro One skipper

 

CRUNCH TIME FOR VOLVO Sponsorship

CRUNCH TIME FOR VOLVO

Mike Sanderson raises a big question today. The Kiwi skipper of ABN Amro One, who is on course to emerge as the biggest and brightest star of this Volvo Ocean Race, asks what will happen to the race. But he asks it in a manner that confirms many of our suspicions that Volvo's involvement is coming to an end.

Sanderson writes: 'It must be close to crunch time for when Volvo has to decide as to the future of their involvement in the race. What ever happens, there is no doubt that there is needed a fully crewed professional race around the world with stops. What was the Whitbread and is now the Volvo is still the pinnacle of offshore racing.'

Like him, I believe that there will always be a place for a crewed professional round the world race, but I don't necessarily concur that it is bound to be the pinnacle of offshore sailing. In sport the only thing that ever remains undisputedly 'the Everest' is...well, Everest itself. For the rest, it fluctuates on the tide of public interest. Indeed, the question posed by Sanderson about the future of the VOR is pertinent mainly because there is a sense that the spotlight has already traveled on.

The place it has traveled on to is short-handed sailing, ironically a broader arena in which it is easier to feel you know and thus to care about the sailors. That the VOR has fast yachts is neither here nor there. Multihulls are quicker. A 5ft 2in woman can now go round the world faster on her own than a crewed pro race in which women just aren't strong enough to compete.

From this gloom, though, Sanderson himself shines brilliantly. A great sailor, a palpably natural leader, a modest guy and, we now find, a terrific writer, his transfer to solo and short-handed sailing in the Pindar Open 60 later this year is another good reason to keep a sharper eye on that circuit.
~ Elaine Bunting,
www.elainebunting.blogspot.com

 

Technology The Big Winner In The VOR

This year's Volvo Ocean Race will be turning out its fair share of heroes
and there are records to break.

But the unlikely hero in this year's gruelling race has to be the
satellite technology on-board all the yachts. Every move made by the crews
is being monitored with on-board cameras and microphones, tracked in
cyberspace, replayed on television and written about in newspapers and
magazines.

So far, the technology, supplied and installed by race sponsor and global
satellite communications company Inmarsat, has proved pivotal on many
counts during the race. During the second leg of the race between Cape
Town and Melbourne, the crew on the Disney-sponsored Pirates of the
Caribbean noticed water seeping in around the area of the keel. Using the
Fleet F77 terminal, fitted as standard on all seven boats, crew captain
Paul Cayard was able to film, photograph and relay every painstaking
detail of the leak back to the boat's makers, Farr Yacht Design in
Maryland. Data can be transferred at 128Kbps using Fleet F77 ISDN –
meaning video imagery can be delivered faster than four years ago, and at
higher resolutions.

Cayard was also able to take part in a video-conference with the boat's
designers and satisfy himself that the main structure of the keel was
intact and their race could continue.

The technology has also meant that the crew remain in contact family and
loved ones in a way they have not been able to before. One crew member has
been able to share in the birth of a child back home and another expectant
father is looking forward to a similar event before the race ends.

Most importantly, the Inmarsat technology on board each boat also provides
a virtual link with the British Antarctic Medical Unit at Derriford
Hospital. Injured sailors can now get instant help from the most advanced
remote facility of its kind in the world.

In terms of raising the profile and exposure of professional ocean racing,
Inmarsat has delivered the highest levels ever of media coverage for the
sponsors during this race. Footage from the on-board cameras has so far
been used to produce 38 weekly TV updates, broadcast in 42 territories
with the final television audience expected to exceed 1.5 billion.

The numbers are highly impressive. On the first leg of the race between
Vigo and Cape Town, some 186 movie clips and 301 stills were sent from the
racing yachts back to the UK; during the second leg 160 movie clips and
372 still were sent, and during the third leg between Melbourne and
Wellington, New Zealand, 27 movie clips and 100 stills were relayed back.

On the first leg almost 1,000 emails were received by the yachts, and 727
were sent. It is the regular daily emails that bring race conditions
alive for millions of followers.

But the biggest success story has been on the Internet with the individual
boat's websites attracting millions of hits. Repeated structural problems
with some of the competing yachts have created a level of interest in the
race which can only be fed and maintained by the interactive technology.
Millions around the world will be watching the arrival of the yachts in
Rio. The interest may be prurient – I'm sure many will be watching to
see if any of the boats break again – but the point is that professional
ocean yachting has turned a corner in terms of worldwide interest and
exposure. This has to be good news for everyone involved.

-- Hannah Mercer

 

Details of Farr Keel System

....courtesy of Scuttlebutt

* The fairing system developed by Farr Yacht Design for the Volvo Open
70 keels has been the source of considerable interest for those
following the Volvo Ocean Race. The team at Farr Yacht Design has just
provided us with a detailed explanation of the system and of what
happened . and we've posted it on the Scuttlebutt website:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/06/0309/

 

Hey Guys, take a look at this video

http://www.volvooceanrace.org/mediaplayer/index.aspx?guid=8849aabd-e9bb-40b0-8f82-308e4e9bd910

 

Vented water box

In the March issue of Seahorse (pg11), Moose is quoted about the keel box:
"The keel head is in a water box, which is vented. I was adamant that we ran a vented box [with a breather up through the mast] though it's the noisiest mother ever."

Anybody got more insight on this? ... does it evacuate the keel box of water?
How much water volume are we talking about if it were not vented? At what speeds is it effective?

 

Back on my soap-box to fan the fire....
Very exciting to watch when the boats are close, eh? Now imagine adding about an extra 500lbs of structure to make the boats more reliable, having everyone sail the same boat design, bidding out for production to cut manufacturing/R&D costs by as much as half, and having 14 boats compete within 50 miles of each other? Sure they might be a tenth of a knot slower, but the audience would be many times more interested and bigger.

 

As Helodriver, I'll be inerested on more details of the wet-boxes on the VO70 or other types of boats. Does anyone know where to find drawings, sketches, explanations? Thanks