I wait for two years to watch these boats sail nearly 40,000 miles, 9 months, 5 Continents, 4 Oceans. This is my Super Bowl, this is my World Cup, This is my Tour D' France,
Last time around I was in for Puma, this time around I'm behind Team Alvimedica. Charlie Enright, Mark Towill, Armory Ross are my player favorites. I am giddy with excitement.
That said in case you are new to this craziness I've posted a link here for you to get caught up with. It's a three part series from CNN it should just play all three back to back for you.
Seriously though, I'm excited. This is the culmination of two years of reading the message boards, following behind the scenes drama. Nail bitting stuff seriously. The big change that the media will focus on is that the VOR is now a one design race. What does "one-design" mean? It means that instead of a 7-10 boats built and designed by different firms by different yards, one design was chosen and one boat yard was allowed to build the boats. This makes it easier to raise funds for a cheaper race campaign and in theory lets the team that gets the first boat practice while the next 6 boats are being built.
That is a major change to the premise of the race. At the surface it says that the sailors are going to be the ones tested and less so on the boats since all the teams are using the same boat. BUT I AM NOT SO EASILY FOOLED!
My theory: the yard that is building the boats, Farr Design, has a great history and a solid track record. I personally love some of their ocean cruising designs. But they are building 7 boats! The last boat to come out is definitely without a doubt going to be better than the first. There is just no way to avoid it. The processes are adjusted and kinks fine tuned in the building system to streamline production and create a better product. Its the nature of the beast!
Interestingly enough though....and arguably (everywhere just look to the forum and builders blogs) The first team will have had their boat for something like 18 months (don't quote me) by the time the race starts. Which means they'll be able to practice to their hearts content and work out all the human factors well before the last boat is finished...in theory.
Here's the catch: The first boat finished went to the ALL WOMEN team SCA the last boat finished is going to the team who's skipper came in 2nd in the last edition of the race. How's that for engineered balance. Knut Frostad is definitely scheming in his Volvo Home office.
Someone else that is probably scheming but in a far more sinister fashion is Juan Kouyoumdjian and his team. They are the massive sore losers in the one-design plan. Juan K has designed boats for the couple of editions of the VOR and has put more than one boat in each race. Believe me when I say, he lost a LOT of money in this deal. Here's the thing though, his designs, they have a tendency to break. But maybe thats not his fault. Maybe it's the boat yards fault. Maybe the crew pushed the boats, dare I say it, TOO HARD?
Here's the juice, this is going to be a sick race. New tech is going to allow us to have live interviews with the crew mid race, there is going to be high definition video and graphics. Think of all the graphics that go into explaining where the 1st down line is in football or the arc of the kick in soccer, or the wind line in golf. All of that is going to be added to Volvo this edition... and it's going to be nutz!
oooo I got goosebumps... there's rumblings that we might fly out to one or two of the stops on the race.
photo credits: volvo ocean race 2014-15
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