Please select your home edition
Edition
X-Yachts Leaderboard 2024 2

Shape of next Volvo Ocean Race revealed at Southern Spars - Part 1

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com NZL on 3 May 2016
Brunel will have clocked up 80,000nm on just one mainsail - Volvo Ocean Race - In Port Race, Auckland Richard Gladwell www.photosport.co.nz
Southern Spars has been confirmed as the supplier of spars for the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race.

The World's predominant carbon spar builder is the only non-European manufacturer to be selected as a supplier for the round the world classic.

Southern Spars will be designing and producing masts for the fleet of VO65s for the second running of the race sailed in a one-design format.

In mid-April, Race Director, Jack Lloyd and Stopover Manager Richard Mason outlined the changes expected for the 40,000nm Race during a tour of the 10,000sq metre specialist spar construction facility, in Avondale, West Auckland.

A total of up to seven boats is expected to enter, but time is running out for the construction of any new boats.

Already the deadline has passed for the construction of an eighth boat unless builders were to work on an accelerated program with overtime. Organisers are not encouraging any more late entries like Team Vestas Wind in the 2014-15 edition of the race which sailed her 2000nm qualifying leg en route to the start in Alicante, Spain.

:


Almost all the boats, spars, and gear will be re-used during the coming edition of the race, and with new shore support arrangements, campaign costs are expected to drop a further 15% over the previous race, which was 50% drop over the 2011/12 edition.

The spars will all be re-used with a couple of enhancements and modifications – minor changes, plus refurbishing for wear and tear.

“We have two upgrades or service periods coming up when we will work on the rigs,” says Southern Spars Lance Manson, the mast suppliers Project Manager for the Volvo Ocean Race.

“The masts will be upgraded and bought up to as new standard. There will be some cosmetic changes, plus a regular service, as we do between legs.

“Some of the sails could be used for training,” says Richard Mason. “It is worth remembering that those boats went around the world on just one mainsail. In the old days of the America’s Cup, you’d be lucky if a mainsail lasted a week.”

The boats used a total of 11 sails in the last edition, covering 40,000nm in the race itself and training.


“I think it is important to note that Brunel is still actively campaigning in the Caribbean since the last race finished, using the same sails. She will return to Europe and then do two months solid sailing in Gothenburg – where Volvo themselves will conduct a four-month program where they will take every one of their staff sailing on the boats. That program will include Team Vestas Wind at the start, then Dongfeng, and Brunel at the end – all using their original race sails.

“That is probably the equivalent of twice around the world with the same set of sails,” he added.

“When we took the mainsail off Team SCA in Alicante at the end of the last race, it had done 66,000nm, and we were still pretty happy with the shape of it,” Mason, formerly Shore Manager for the Women's team, chimes in.

“For us the match between Southern Spars and North Sails is important, “Lloyd continues. “The ways the two companies work together is vital.”

“They have both embraced from Day 1, our concept of one design – which means that all boats are the same, and if we change one boat, then we have to change all seven boats.

“For me that is where Southern stepped up. We didn’t have a lot of warning on some issues, but it was taken seriously at Southern Spars, and Lance would turn up with enough components for every single boat, plus a plan and every single boat was handled the same.


Rig enhancements will protect one-design ethos
There will be some changes to the rigs for the next race, but the refurbished and new masts will all be identical.

“There will be no temptation by anyone to say that it is not the same,” says Lloyd.

“Just to keep the whole ethos of one design going we have had complete buy-in from everybody. That makes our job easier because we have credibility with everyone.”

“We often forget what a huge hill it was to climb to make the sailing world believe that one design was the way to go, Lloyd explains. “Some don’t understand the implications of not going one design, because if we didn’t, we wouldn’t have a race.

“We challenged the industry, and I think the marine industry have done a great job in giving us a one design boat – and a lot of that has come out of this Southern Spars facility.”

“The race is heavily rooted in the New Zealand marine industry, and business like Southern Spars have grown out of the race,” says Richard Mason, a four race veteran.

“It has a far reaching thing other than just being a yacht race. We export a lot of sailors as well!”


The company is now located in a specialist facility in Avondale, west of Auckland, where 85% of the world’s superyacht masts get built. About half the Grand Prix racing yachts masts also come from Southern Spars in Avondale. The company has built spars for Emirates Team New Zealand since their 1995 campaign, including their Millenium rig – several features of which have crossed over into the superyacht spars, and also the wingsails used by the New Zealand and Italian teams at the 2013 America’s Cup.

“This is a classic case of a Kiwi business that has become a niche specialist. They pick something that is very tightly defined and absolutely own it. Like making the best possible rigs on a global basis,” says Mason.

“It is important to realise the synergies between successful companies and the Race because it extends way beyond the race itself.

Jointly owned by North Technology, both Southern Spars and North Sails have interfaced their sail and mast design programs ensuring a perfect match of sails and spars.

That relates into savings and efficiencies in a lot of ways including reduced commissioning time and “surprises” ahead of sea trials.

Fleet reliability forces re-think
In the last race, a big change from the 2011/12 and earlier editions of the Volvo Ocean Race was that with one exception (Team Vestas Wind) every boat finished every leg. Only two suspended racing. It was not uncommon starting with the finish of Leg 4 into Auckland for the fleet to finish within four hours. In fact in Auckland four boats finished within 15 minutes, after racing from Sanya in China.


That change in reliability is forcing further changes in thinking in the way stopovers are managed, and taking the sharing of maintenance tasks and parts to a new level.

“Previously people like Richard in his old job (Shore manager with Team SCA) would have taken the opportunity to pull the rig out at every stopover,” says Lloyd.

“The plan now is not to pull the rig out whenever possible, and we have an agreed method with Nick (Bice, Volvo Boatyard Manager) as to which stopovers we will pull the rigs out, and on the others we will not allow the rigs to be pulled out.

“It shows that everyone is becoming more comfortable with reliability, and it helps us because we have less space at each stopover.

“It is just not possible to pull seven rigs out at once and put them on the ground for a week.

“We have the confidence now to go forward, and that is driven by the manufacturer,” Lloyd explains.

“In Cape Town where previously we had two weeks to build the race Village, we will now have just four days, and using less space.

“So we certainly need to have new ways of doing things, and not pulling all the rigs at every stopover is going to be a huge help.


Rigs are visually checked, sonically checked and tested with NDT (non-destructive -testing).

“There will be certain levels of service at a certain amount of sailing miles. The teams will do their own visual checking and then depending on how The Boatyard is set up; we will come in as well. The rigs are ultra-sounded at every leg as well. The visual thing is still a big part of it, but ultrasound is the way we roll along now.”

“We still use dye penetrant testing on fittings as well,” he adds.

A meeting took place in late March at Southern Spars for a couple of days with the three key Volvo support crew involved to work through the stopover program, in conjunction with Southern Spars.

“Every component on the hull and boat is NDT tested by the same company, and the hulls and certain components are tested at each stopover and bench marked with the original test results. It is also part of our insurance requirements,” Lloyd adds.

“There was also a lot emphasis on the one design aspect of the rigs when they were sent out of here,” says Southern Spars Lance Manson.

“They were checked for weight, bend and centre of gravity. There was 1.6mm of difference between the rigs. But we will do all that testing again.”

The old rigs and the new rigs will be put through exactly the same tests and measuring process.

There will be some restrictions from last time on the amount that the teams can over-bend rigs. Reaching struts will be another area for change with some teams not breaking a single strut last time and one team breaking 14 of the carbon struts used to hold the clew of the massive Code Zero headsails clear of the boats.

Part 2 of this story will appear on Sail-World tomorrow - covering the route selection process and budget costs for the 2017/18 Volvo Ocean Race

Allen Dynamic 40 FooterPalm Beach Motor YachtsSea Sure 2025

Related Articles

C. Thomas Clagett, Jr. Memorial Clinic & Regatta
23rd edition of the event is in the books The 23rd C. Thomas Clagett, Jr. Memorial Clinic and Regatta wrapped up in Newport, Rhode Island on June 22nd for the 30 sailors with disabilities, after three days of competitive racing and camaraderie along with a two-day coaching clinic.
Posted today at 5:44 am
31st Block Island Race Week Day 2
Regatta Craft Mixers Race Day turns up the heat Regatta Craft Mixers Race Day turned up the heat at Block Island Race Week—literally. The Island was not spared from the heat wave sweeping the East Coast this week, but that did not put a stop to the action out on the water.
Posted today at 12:14 am
Triple amputee crosses Pacific solo & unsupported
33-year-old former Army rifleman from Doncaster, Craig Wood, has today made history 33-year-old former Army rifleman from Doncaster, Craig Wood, has today made history by becoming the world's first triple amputee to sail solo, non-stop and unsupported across the Pacific.
Posted on 24 Jun
Kieler Woche Day 5
Tuesday served as a warm-up for the hot finale of Kieler Woche Sophie Steinlein and Catherine Bartelheimer from Bavaria in the skiff, as well as Kiel native Fabian Wolf on the foiling windsurf board, will enter Wednesday's (June 25) medal races as leaders.
Posted on 24 Jun
iQFOiL International Games at Kiel day 4
Medal series line-up confirmed as wind hits hard in Kiel The fourth and penultimate day of the 3rd iQFOiL International Games in Kiel delivered full-throttle action as athletes across the Senior, Youth, and Junior fleets raced to secure their spots in the all-important Medal Series.
Posted on 24 Jun
44Cup Marstrand 2025 starts tomorrow
Fleet back up to 12 on eve of breezy Marstrand event While the RC44s were up to 11 for the last event in Porto Cervo, for this week's 44Cup Marstrand, scheduled to set sail tomorrow from the breezy west coast of Sweden, the fleet has now grown to 12.
Posted on 24 Jun
Charlie Dalin forced to cancel his 2025 season
Sam Goodchild and Loïs Berrehar to helm MACIF Santé Prévoyance for the Transat Café L'OR Due to health reasons, Charlie Dalin has been forced to cancel his 2025 season. However, in close consultation with his team, the skipper of the IMOCA MACIF Santé Prévoyance and Macif have decided to maintain the ambitious racing schedule.
Posted on 24 Jun
A bold start for Foiling Week 2025
The opening phase of racing has already delivered record-breaking numbers The twelfth edition of Foiling Week has kicked off with a consistent schedule and strong support from the global foiling community.
Posted on 24 Jun
Kieler Woche Day 4
IDM Inshore Gold to Flensburg and Denmark The weather conditions during Kieler Woche on Tuesday continued just as they had on Monday: sustained winds well over 20 knots and gusts exceeding 30.
Posted on 24 Jun
Sopot success story for 5.5 Metre Worlds
The event was a great success story for the class, opening new avenues and new opportunities The dust may have settled on the 2025 5.5 Metre World Championship but the legacy will linger on for a long time.
Posted on 24 Jun