Volvo 70 Design Rule-- 2011-2012 Race

Vor 2011-2012

Here is a so-so video with the current boats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH0eVCpl68c

 

Volvo Ocean Race-change

From Scuttlebutt tonight:

VOLVO OCEAN RACE REDRAWS ROUTE DUE TO PIRACY CONCERNS

The escalating piracy problem in the Indian Ocean has forced organisers of
the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 to redraw the routes for the second and third
legs.

The boats were due to have sailed through an East African corridor in the
Indian Ocean on the second leg from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi and again in the
third leg from Abu Dhabi to Sanya in China but after taking advice from
marine safety experts and the sport's governing body, the International
Sailing Federation (ISAF), the routes have been changed.

The boats will now race from Cape Town to an undisclosed 'safe haven' port,
be transported closer to Abu Dhabi, and then complete the leg from there.
The process will be reversed for the third leg before the race continues on
to Sanya.

"This has been an incredibly difficult decision," said Volvo Ocean Race
Chief Executive Knut Frostad. "We have consulted leading naval and
commercial intelligence experts and their advice could not have been
clearer: 'Do not risk it.'

"The solution we have found means our boats will still be racing into Abu
Dhabi and competing in the in-port race there. Abu Dhabi is a very
important part of our plans, a real highlight being the race's first-ever
stopover in the Middle East, and we will now have a really exciting sprint
finish to the emirate over the New Year period as well."
-- Full story:http://tinyurl.com/VOR-081611


Q&A ON THE COURSE CHANGE DECISION

* The race starts in less than 80 days. Why leave this decision so late?

The situation in the Indian Ocean is dynamic and this decision has in fact
been taken very early. We will not know until the SW Monsoon abates and the
NE Monsoon becomes established in late October/early November how the
piracy situation will develop this season so while this decision appears
logistically late it is in fact tactically early.

* How will you be transporting the boats to Abu Dhabi?

The boats will be shipped on a specialised boat transport ship. The boats
and the crews will be transported separately.

* Where will the 'safe haven' be?

We understand there is lots of speculation about this but in the interests
of operational security, these details will be released at a later date
when it is appropriate.

* Where will the race start again?

This will not be decided until the tactical situation at the time has been
fully assessed but contingencies will be in place to provide logistical
support to different options.

* How can you guarantee the safety of the boats in the transport ship which
is carrying them?

Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/11/0818/
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuOX0-NiO_I

 

VOR 70's---Lifting boards

Here is a quote made in August 2011 by Andrew Hurst ,Editor of Seahorse magazine:

"A key reason for the positive camber boards on IMOCA 60's and some new VOR70's is that rather than providing maximum lateral lift when heeled, by being canted outboards(bottom out dl), instead gains are taken in generating vertical lift by leaning the asymetrical foils the other way(top outboard-dl).
Similarly, the curved foils used so successfully by Guillaume Verdier on his IMOCA 60 designs.
So (yet) another new world begins."

This is exciting because this is the second major monohull round the world class to allow lifting foils. Apparently, curved lifting foils( so successfull with Open 60's) are not legal but the boards can be angle 30 degrees top inboard(conventional-no lift when heeled or 30 degrees top outboard-some vertical lift when heeled). Pretty damn cool! Funny how these "foilly thingies" are spreading throughout performance sailing.....

===================
I went back and looked at some of the boats and I'd bet "Puma" is one of these and "Abu Dhabi". On both you can clearly see that the top of the foil is outboard vs the normal inboard location. This allows some degree of vertical lift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV1gzJx32KQ PUMA

click on image: Note- the red boat is Team New Zealand with conventional boards....

 

Vor 2011-2012

Volvo Ocean Race Promo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjZ37-xrQKI&feature=player_embedded

 

Volvo Ocean Race--- THE START

From Scuttlebutt tonight:

FOR THOSE ABLE TO WALK THE WALK

With the America's Cup, there is a lot of initial talk about the teams
planning to compete. There are eight teams currently entered, but who knows
how many will be sufficiently funded to bring their campaign to San
Francisco in two years time. Same situation for the Volvo Ocean Race,
except now we know who will be on the start line October 29th.

The most competitive line-up to contest a Volvo Ocean Race is now
assembling in Alicante, Spain. The six teams poised to battle it out for
the honour of lifting the Volvo Ocean Race trophy are:
1) Team Telefónica,
--
2) Team Sanya,
--
3) Groupama Sailing Team,
--
4) CAMPER/ Emirates Team New Zealand,
--
5) Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and
--
6) PUMA Ocean Racing .

Time has run out for a possible seventh team to enter the race, which
begins with an In-Port Race on October 29 before the 6500 nm first leg to
Cape Town sets off on November 5. The six crews boast between them eight
Olympic medals - four gold and four silver - and 106 circumnavigations in
the Volvo Ocean Race/Whitbread Round the World Race alone.

"The arrival of all the boats in Alicante is a major milestone for the
Volvo Ocean Race and it's great to see them all in port, said Knut Frostad,
Chief Executive of the Volvo Ocean Race. "Having the teams here next to
each other really brings home the enormity of the challenge that lies
ahead. Personally I think it is a big achievement to have the most
competitive fleet ever on the start line considering the crisis Europe is
in.

A section of the port has been turned into a temporary boatshed for the
teams as they make last-minute adjustments to their cutting-edge 70ft
racing yachts. Their immediate focus will be a short qualification race,
starting from Alicante on October 7. The 600-nautical mile passage will
allow the teams - and race organisers - to iron out any 11th-hour problems
and will be the first opportunity for each team to compare their
performance with that of their rivals ahead of the first In-Port Race. --
Full story: http://tinyurl.com/VOR-100211

VIDEO: During the race, the multimedia team will be producing daily news
updates, a weekly 3-minute news round-up and highlights from each of the 9
legs and 10 in-port races -- which will be available online through our
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/volvooceanracevideos
==========
Volvo Ocean Race site: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/home.html

 

Volvo Ocean Race

The qualifying race has begun with Team New Zealand in the lead in relatively light air. Should finish early Sunday.


Team New Zealand:

 

Telefonica , first, Puma second in the qualifier. Interestingly, to me at least: these are two of the three(& Abu Dhabi) boats that are using lifting foils. The first actual racing is the in port race on October 29 and Leg 1 starts November 5 to Cape Town, South Africa.

http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/Champagne-breakfast-for-Telefonica/3582/news.html


Pictures: Telefonica, first; Puma second,

click on image:

 

Are these the lifting foils?

 

Yes. Compare them to Team NZ: the lifting foils angle outboard at the top when retracted; Team NZ inboard whe retratacted. The old "style" foils on Team NZ were designed to be vertical when the boat was heeled-the new foils are designed to develop vertical lift when heeled.

pix-Team NZ-conventional boards; Puma boards angled outboard at top when retracted
click on image:

 

Iker Martinez, skipper of Telefonica, after recent event.
“It was not a real race,’’ Martínez said while dripping with champagne following the team’s onshore celebrations. “We spent a lot of time doing those manoeuvres for the safety procedures, and we could have won or lost on any one of those.”

The reading indicates that the lift advantage, if there is one, is yet to be realized. From the description, it looks like it was more about route taking, rather than a technical advantage by Telefonica/Puma.

 

Vor 2011-2012

===================
Thats one way to look at the fact that two of the three boats using lifting foils were first and second......
The pioneering work done in the Open 60 class where the use of lifting foils is proven to work well-particularly Verdier's- curved foils has opened the door here-its pretty exciting. It's a shame we're looking at foils so constrained by rules in the Volvo 70 class. But it's really not a question anymore "if" they work-thats been settled for some time.

 

Volvo Ocean Race---Groupama 4

These pictures from The Daily Sail seem to indicate that Groupama 4 is also using lifting foils(top of foil outboard when retracted):

click on image-

 

Volvo Ocean Racing Game

Check this out-you can "race" against many others: http://www.volvooceanracegame.com/

 

Volvo Ocean Race

From Scuttlebutt tonight: (Excerpt from SCUTTLEBUTT 3454 - Monday, October 24, 2011)



DESIGN DIFFERENCES

When the six Volvo Open 70s line up for the first In-Port Race of the
2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race on October 29th, each team will be quick to
analyze their relative performance. For a race with nine distance legs and
ten In-Port Races, the teams that don't continue to improve will get left
in the wake.

Ken Read (USA), skipper of PUMA Ocean Racing, provides his observations of
the fleet:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the best parts of participating in a development class is when the
boats break out of the shed and you see all of the parts and pieces that
others have thought of.and they in turn see what you have done. We went
with as low a CG as possible with our entire program. Deck and cabin house
design were done to get the weight low and to make sure we kept the all up
boat weight at or below the minimum. A couple of the new boats went with
"J-24" style decks with no cabin house for a lower windage look. It is all
a wash probably, but we like where we ended up.

Abu Dhabi also went with an open cockpit design to get their sail stack
lower. We think that the new rules concerning less sails and the lack of
being able to fill the very aft compartment in the boat with gear in heavy
downwind conditions dissuaded us from going open cockpit. We felt we needed
the stacking area downstairs, area that an open cockpit wouldn't give you.

Camper's adjustable headstay system has been a major topic. While the rest
of the fleet pinned their headstay at one length, Camper has a hydraulic
ram to adjust the rake of the mast in different conditions. For sure the
rest of the fleet read the rule in a way that you couldn't do this, but the
rules makers had a different idea.

The Camper boat is also different with the daggerboards behind the keel and
mast. The rest of the fleet has gone in the other direction. Our
daggerboards are actually further forward than even Ericsson 4 had last
race - the winning Juan K design. All the Juan K-designed boats - us,
Telefonica and Groupama - have negative dihedrals* on the daggerboards,
also a new look for the class (bottom of board angles toward each other).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
VIDEO: During the race, the multimedia team will be producing daily news
updates, a weekly 3-minute news round-up and highlights from each of the
distance legs and in-port races -- all available online at the VOR YouTube
Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/volvooceanracevideos

More: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com


* "negative dihedrals" is a new one on me.......

 

Volvo Ocean Race

from Scuttlebutt, today:

DESIGN DIFFERENCES

When the six Volvo Open 70s line up for the first In-Port Race of the
2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race on October 29th, each team will be quick to
analyze their relative performance. For a race with nine distance legs and
ten In-Port Races, the teams that don't continue to improve will get left
in the wake.

Chris Nicholson (AUS), skipper of CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand,
describes a couple areas to look for:

"The boards continue to be a big ticket item on these boats. Our boards are
behind the mast, and we are the first VO 70 to put them in that position.
Everybody else has their boards in front of the rig. As for board breakage,
the only way to truly avert damage is to avoid ocean obstacles. I can say
it is an area of the boat where we did not spare any expense in terms of
weight and structure.

"The other important area is the sail program, as with fewer sails allowed
in this race, we have some real holes in the inventory so our designs have
to be doing a better job to improve each sail's versatility."

Skipper, Team, Yacht Design
Frank Cammas, Groupama, Juan Kouyoumdjian design
Iker Martinez, Team Telefonica, Juan Kouyoumdjian design
Ken Read, PUMA Ocean Racing, Juan Kouyoumdjian design
Chris Nicholson, CAMPER, Marcelino Botin design
Mike Sanderson, Team Sanya, Farr Yacht Design
Ian Walker, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, Farr Yacht Design

Photo of all the teams can be seen here:
http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/gallery/photos.html