With less than 200 days to go until the start of the next Volvo Ocean Race, it’s all action at Race HQ in Alicante. But that doesn’t stop race organisers keeping an eye on the future.
The edition after 2017-18, which will be the 14th in the race’s history, will be contested in brand new One Design racing boats – and the designer has already been chosen.
Designing the future | Volvo Ocean Race
France’s Guillaume Verdier, one of the world’s top naval architects, will lead the design the boat alongside his close collaborators, and it will be built under the direction of Persico Marine, the Italian boatbuilder which recently completed the build of team AkzoNobel’s boat – the eighth in the current Volvo Ocean 65 fleet.
Verdier is the ‘quiet’ achiever who has been involved in sailing’s most innovative designs – from giant multihulls like Gitana’s Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, to be launched in July, through Team New Zealand’s current America’s Cup flying multihulls to maxi-monohulls like Comanche, and the leading Vendée Globe IMOCA 60 foiling projects such as Hugo Boss and Banque Populaire VIII.
He has already joined the Volvo Ocean Race’s design team, and is currently working with the race on the crucial issue on everyone’s lips: monohull, or multihull?
The final decision on the proposed designs will be announced on 18 May at an event in Gothenburg, the home of the race’s owners and title sponsors Volvo.
And that’s not the only key decision which will be addressed at the event. Together, the announcements will form the most radical shake-up of the event since it began back in 1973 as the Whitbread Round the World Race.
We’re excited to work with someone as talented as Guillaume Verdier – who will be a perfect complement to the wider Volvo Ocean Race Design Team, and the input we plan to have from a wider group of professional sailors and industry partners
Mark Turner
“Conceived in 2011, the current fleet of boats was built to be competitive for two editions,” said Volvo Ocean Race CEO Mark Turner. “We need to move now on the future boats to keep all our options open on boat type and design.
On the decision to award Persico the lead role in the building of the boats, rather than the Consortium approach used for the Volvo Ocean 65s, Nick Bice, the race’s Chief Technical Development Officer, said: “The Consortium did some good work last time around to produce such matched boats, but we prefer to contract this time with a single builder, who in turn will undoubtedly sub-contract a number of other builders around the world to achieve the build in time and to budget. Persico have been a strong partner over these past few years, and we are delighted to be working with them again.”
The decision to continue with One Design fleet follows the introduction of the current Volvo Ocean 65 before 2014-15, which produced the closest racing in the history of the event.
Persico have been a strong partner over these past few years, and we are delighted to be working with them again
Nick Bice
Those seven boats, which have undergone a one million euro per boat refit procedure – plus the new-build, completed at Persico last month – will line up on the Alicante start line in October 2017, ready for another lap of the planet.
The race opted to go with Verdier after inviting input from half a dozen industry-leading yacht designers, including Farr Yacht Design, the team that kick-started the One Design era in the race by delivering the successful Volvo Ocean 65 project.
© Amalia Infante/Volvo Ocean Race
Verdier’s goal will be to lead the Volvo Ocean Race Design Team to build a new fleet to the same exacting levels of matched One Design achieved with the current boats, but very much connected to the big evolutions in foiling technology the world of sailing is currently seeing.
“We’re bringing together a wide-ranging depth of experience from events such as the America’s Cup, offshore multihulls and IMOCA Open 60 projects,” Verdier explained.
We are starting from a blank page, and whatever kind of boat we design, whether it’s monohull or multihull, we will learn a lot from this process of working together
Guillaume Verdier
He continued: “I think sailors just want to have fun, and are attracted to a new way of sailing. In the Open 60, for example, we made something which was quite radical, but also very safe, and that’s key for the Volvo Ocean Race.”
© Rick Deppe
Marcello Persico said the company was delighted to be building the next generation of Volvo Ocean Race boats.
“We’ve been working closely with the Volvo Ocean Race for the last eight years and we feel part of the family,” he said. “I believe that Persico Marine will deliver excellent support and service to the Volvo Ocean Race as it embarks on the next phase in its history.”
