The Volvo Open by Hal

The VOVLO OPEN 70s

About As Sexy as a Boat Can Get

A Volvo Open 70 sailboat is seventy feet of pure sailing performance and technology that was developed for the 2005-­‐ 2006 Volvo Round the World Race. It is the fastest monohull ever built and is the evolutionary product of what was originally the Whitbread Round the World Race. This race was first run in 1973 and is over 30,000 miles of soaking wet, slamming fun in the sun. There will be more about the race in a future blog.

The 70s were first used in 2005 when they replaced the Open 60 design. The 70s are built under a set of box rules with racing around the world in mind. It was decided that the Volvo Open 70 was a good balance between designing a much larger boat, which would make building the boat prohibitively expensive, and a smaller less expensive boat which would be less safe and not as fast. In their day, the Open 60s cost three million to build and another ten million to campaign. The sticker price is probably at least 20 million to build and race a 70-­‐foot boat.

Unlike the Open 60s, the 70-­‐foot boats are constructed using an arsenal of lightweight material including carbon fiber, Kevlar, Mylar, spectra, and something called polybenzoxazole. In the manic effort to save weight, it would not be surprising if the crew had to share a toothbrush. The boats look like rockets flying through the water and, in addition to space age materials, they are equipped with some very high tech components.

The most obvious component is the canting keel. The keel, like on many modern racing boats, is a chunk of bullet shaped lead on the end of a long skinny stick, almost 14 feet long in this case. However, this stick can be canted up to 40 degrees to weather in order to keep the boat flat. Canting puts enormous pressures on the mechanical system controlling the angle of the keel. The mechanical pivot failed on one of the earlier boats which allowed the loose canting keel to free wheel 80 degrees back and forth until it sank the boat. 70s use dagger boards to control leeway when the keel is canted.

Canting keel on an RC Open 70

If you can imagine, there is no metal in the standing rigging of the 70s! All metal has been replaced with Spectra and polybenzoxazole in the unending effort to reduce weight, particularly aloft.

An interesting, but low tech, component on the Open 70s is the addition of porches over the main hatch. The boats have an extremely fine entry at the bow, which, along with their extreme speeds, makes them excessively wet on deck. The porch makes it possible to leave the hatch open without filling the boat up with water.

Notice the grinder’s gear. A dry suit, a helmet AND a face shield says a lot about the amount and speed of water that’s coming over the deck!

Puma stretching her legs in relatively light air

As usual, there is a contingent of yachties who do not approve of any kind of grand prix boat. The 70s have been criticized as being too fast to control. They have had their share of problems, including gear failure or loosing crew overboard. The complaints are similar regarding the high tech AC 45 cats that capsize, pitch pole, and crash into other boats frequently.

Agreed, there’s a lot to criticize about these new boats, however, GET OVER IT! New technology breaks now and then and occasionally a courageous man or woman gets hurt. It takes a while to sort out problems, therefor sail those new boats until they break, fix them, and welcome the next generation.