New Volvo Ocean 65 Under Construction

Published on October 12th, 2016

Alicante, Spain (October 12, 2016) – The Volvo Ocean Race has confirmed that a new boat is being built for the 2017-18 edition at Persico Marine, Italy. As a One Design class, it will be identical to the existing fleet of seven Volvo Ocean 65s, and will be launched in May next year. The team behind this new build will be announced early in 2017.

“It’s exciting to welcome an addition to the fleet ahead of the next edition, as this was not necessarily expected,” said Nick Bice, the Volvo Ocean Race’s Director of Boats and Maintenance. “We now have a real prospect of starting the next race with more boats than in the last edition.”

He added: “There will be absolutely no advantage in terms of physical performance or reliability. The new boat will be identical to the existing fleet in every respect. All of the Volvo Ocean 65s were built with at least two editions in mind, possibly even a third – and the seven that finished the 2014-15 edition are still in fantastic condition.”

Persico Marine is the lead contractor for the new boat, and will use the same moulds, materials and process of building the original fleet of Volvo Ocean 65s. After completion, the boat will be delivered to the Boatyard facility in Lisbon (Portugal), where it will undergo rigorous measurement tests.

“When it comes to measuring, we run a fully transparent process,” said Bice. “Anyone from any team can come and witness the boats being measured in our refit facility in Lisbon, to ensure they fit the bill.

“Our tests on the existing boats have shown they have not lost any of their rigidity or performance, so whilst the team building a new boat will have ‘no excuses’ from a mental perspective perhaps, there will be no real advantage in physical terms.”

An extensive refit process is currently underway on the original Volvo Ocean 65s. That process is designed to ensure that the components make another 45,000 nautical miles around the world, but also includes significant upgrades in communication equipment, safety, energy generation, and performance electronics as well as new designs of sails which will level the playing field again to some extent.

Editor’s note: We will have to wait and see if there will be eight boats on the start line, or if one of the seven existing boats will not be claimed for the 2017-18 race. So far only one team has been announced, but it is not known if this new boat is for them or for another as of yet undisclosed team.

Background: Racing the one design Volvo Ocean 65, the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race begins in Alicante, Spain in the fall of 2017 with the final finish in The Hague, Netherlands in summer 2018. The race visits 11 cities across five continents. The full fleet has yet to be announced but there expects to be a minimum of 7 teams with a possibility of 1 or 2 more.

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