Wondering whether the new Volvo Open 70 is a fast boat? Wonder no longer. Telefonica Movistar, skippered by Bouwe Bekking and on the way from Wellington towards Cape Horn, just broke the outright monohull 24-hour record. Their mark? 530 miles, which beats the old record held by Mari Cha IV (which is almost twice as long) by 5 miles. Equally impressive, they reportedly hit speeds of 36 knots at times, and were just 10 miles shy of the 1994 solo record set by Laurent Bourgnon in his Open 60 trimaran. We’ve come a long way in monohull design when we are comparing a sloop and an Open 60 tri. What can we conclude from all this? Well, it is complicated so pay attention: these boats are f*cking fast. Which will be great for the Volvo Ocean race which I’m reasonably certain starts sometime this decade (seems like forever since the last one).
If you want to slurp up more color about these new super-surfers, check out the transatlantic crossing diary from ABN AMRO. Here’s Sidney Gavignet’s account of what it’s like to drive these babies:
“Balaclavas and gloves of all kind appeared on deck. Last night the atmosphere was not the same. No wool hats, but true diving balaclavas with helmets with an attached visor. 30 to 35 knots of wind, and the bridge turns into a waterfall. 25, 28, 30, 32 knots: the speedometer goes up relentlessly.
One can only guess what the digital instruments are reading while the boat attacks another wave! We don’t know anymore, is it better to surf it or to go through it? In one of these waves, doing over 30 knots, the bow pulpit (that stainless steel tube structure) did not resist the encounter between the boat’s speed and the sea water resistance. It ended up completely bent.
In this specific wave I had totally eased the spinnaker to alleviate the pressure on the mast. At the wheel, constantly doing close to 25 knots, with small decreases to 20 knots, the accelerations are enormous. The amplitudes to turn the wheel have to be very brief: any rotation is amplified by speed.
At these speeds we never use more than half a turn of the wheel,compared to its entire perimeter in normal conditions. The key momentis the change of the Helmsman. “All sails up” means you have to get into the rhythm in a split second in the black and referenceless night.”
Hmm, contrary to many expectation maybe this Volvo race thing is going to be a pretty good show…
“Heh-heh. Nice work, Bouwe. Now let’s call Bob Miller up and suggest that Mari-Cha will make a hell of a planter…”
The Earthist Chronicles 