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  A new horse for the VOR course—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond
 | | Guillaume Verdier to create new One Design yacht for Volvo Ocean Race © Amalia Infante / Volvo Ocean Race |
One of the more interesting developments in offshore racing news was last week's announcement by the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) that world-class yacht designer Guillaume Verdier, who is responsible for helping to draw many of the world's most outrageous sailboats, including Comanche and the new 32-meter Maxi Edmond de Rothschild for the Gitana team (launching this July), will lead a design team to create a new boat for the race's 14th edition. While it's unclear as to how long this new VOR warhorse will be, or even how many hulls it will have, the race has confirmed that they will continue to use their same One Design concept moving forward. Moreover, the VOR has confirmed that they will announce plans for the new design at a May 18, 2017, press conference in Volvo's hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden
The 13th edition of the VOR (2017/2018), it should be noted, will still be contested aboard the same identical Volvo Ocean 65s monohulls that were used in the 2014/2015 race (plus a new boat that's being built to these same exacting standards), however the plan for this fleet was always for it to be used for two editions of the race.
“Conceived in 2011, the current fleet of boats was built to be competitive for two editions,” said Volvo Ocean Race CEO Mark Turner in a press release. “We need to move now on the future boats to keep all our options open on boat type and design.
 | | MAPFRE have signed Britain's Rob Greenhalgh as a watch captain - Volvo Ocean Race © Ainhoa Sanchez / Volvo Ocean 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.”
With Verdier's hire comes a new world of possibility for a race that regularly looks to push the boundaries. For example, the routing for the 2017/2018 will spend significantly more time in the Southern Ocean and will involve some seriously long legs, including the mammoth 7,600-nautical-mile run from Auckland, New Zealand to Itajai, Brazil. While the Volvo Ocean 65s are quick boats, there's no question that a maxi trimaran could sail this same distance in significantly less time, provided the crew was able to keep the right side of the nets pointing up.
 | | IDEC Sport - lining up for another shot at the Jules Verne Trophy JM Liot / DPPI / IDEC SPORT |
Recent years have seen big multi-hulls knock stunning times off of various record passages. For example, skipper Francis Joyon (FRA) and his IDEC Sport (née Groupama 3, Banque Populaire VII and Lending Club 2) crew established a new Jules Verne Trophy record on January 26, 2017 for the fastest fully crewed, nonstop circumnavigation with a time of just of 40 days 23 hours 30 minutes 30 seconds, and on Christmas Day, 2016, Thomas Coville (FRA), sailing aboard Sodebo Ultim, set a new solo and nonstop-around-the-world record of just 49 days, three hours, seven minutes and 38 seconds.
 | | Thomas Coville crossed the finish line off Ushant Jean-Marie Liot / DPPI / Sodeb'O |
There's no question that multi-hulls are fast, and if the America's Cup is any guide, they could also be sailing's future, but interesting questions start emerging when talk of hydrofoils enter the equation.
Moth and Cup sailors have now been using hydrofoils for years, and skippers Armel Le Cleac'h and Alex Thomson showed the monohull world the stunning results that can happen when “Dali foils” (AKA, 'DSS foils') are pressed into service aboard IMOCA 60 monohulls in the solo and nonstop-around-the-world Vendee Globe Race. This leads one to think that, irrespective of the monohull/multi-hull question, Verdier and his VOR design team have got to be looking at the possibility of foiling-or at least limited foiling-during the 14th edition of the VOR.
 | | DSS foils on Banque Populaire VIII - Vendee Globe 2016-2017 V.Curutchet |
“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,” said Verdier in a VOR release. “We are starting from a blank page, and whatever kind of boat we design, whether it's monohull or multihulll, we will learn a lot from this process of working together.”
While there's no question that foiling multi-hulls could shave entire days of a passage such as the run from Auckland to Itajai, there's no escaping the fact that the VOR also tackles some of the world's most remote waters (as does the Vendee Globe and the Jules Verne Trophy), potentially placing the sailors in a life-or-death predicament, should their stability vanish.
 | | Dongfeng Race Team – Volvo Ocean Race © Benoit Stichelbaut / Dongfeng Race Team |
Irrespective of whether the race and Verdier's team elects to go with a monohull or multihull, the VOR has already announced that the fleet of new boats for the VOR's 14th edition will all be built to exacting standards by Persico Marine.
Depending on how things go in Bermuda this June during the 35th America's Cup, there could be a lot of multi-hull experts in the job market, as Emirates Team New Zealand has hinted that they would likely return to monohulls for AC36, if they manage to peddle off with the Auld Mug.
 | | MOD70 Virbac-Paprec capsized ahead of the Transat Jacques Vabre Yvan Zedda © |
So what could possibly go wrong if the VOR switches to foiling multihulls for the 14th edition of this storied race? Well, one might consult Jimmy Spithill, skipper of Oracle Team USA for the 35th America's Cup. This weekend, the team accidentally capsized their brand-new ACC boat on Bermudan waters. (No one was hurt and damage was minimal, at least compared to OTUSA's 2012 capsize on San Francisco Bay.) Granted, ACC boats are designed for high-performance and maneuverability around a short course, but the situation highlights the fact that, when multihulls and hydrofoils combine, stability sometimes has a way of vanishing, even with some of the world's best sailors on the flight controls.
 | | Oracle Team USA capsizes their AC50 in Bermuda The Royal Gazette © |
It will be interesting to see what direction Verdier and the VOR choose, so stay tuned for more on this interesting twist in offshore racing, as it unfurls in May.
May the four winds blow you safely home,
David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor
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