tick tock

We are now in the final month leading up to The Ocean Race, with teams assembling at the starting port of Alicante. Five IMOCAs and six VO65s according to the event website but with two of the VO65 teams not yet having a website link from the main site.

Much has been made of the move to the IMOCAs but they are still not as sophisticated as the Super 60s would have been. Proposed by VOR management before the start of the last race and then reneged on by Volvo AB which was at least part of the reason for Mark Turner’s departure. If one remembers the Super 60s had a foil on their rudder and a proposed canting rig yet here we are two races later and a similar boat is the weapon of choice by the organizers.

I also doubt the move away from one design being able to produce racing as close as it has been in the last two races. In fact, no lesser a skipper than race winner Ian Walker stated that had 2014 not been one design it was unlikely that Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing would have returned, of course, I have been wrong before…

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