VO65, Volvo Ocean 65 One Design Racing Yacht

Designer’s Notes

The Volvo Ocean 65 is the new one-design boat that contested the 2014-15 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. It will also be the one design used for the 2017-18 edition. At 65ft LOA the new yachts are slightly shorter than the previous generation of Volvo Open 70s but will be more reliable, robust and affordable while still being a very high performance racing boat. The new boat is designed by Farr Yacht Design with a consortium of four boatyards taking care of the build process — Green Marine in the United Kingdom, Decision in Switzerland, Persico in Italy and Multiplast in France. “Farr Yacht Design is pretty uniquely positioned in that we have an enormous Volvo Ocean Race experience," said Patrick Shaughnessy, President of Farr Yacht Design. "We have designed 40 boats for the race, been involved in nine editions, the last few campaigns we've been on the ground 100 percent of the time supporting the teams and really been part of the race, and the thing that makes us a little unique is that we can combine that with an enormous one-design experience. I don't believe there's another team in the world that can present all those parts and that's really I think what makes us ideally suited for this opportunity.”