First new Open 60 for the next Vendee Globe is on its way to Europe. |
| Saturday, 29 July 2006 |
The first new Open 60 to be launched for the next Vendee Globe is Owen Clarke Design’s Temenos which is on her way back from New Zealand having succesfully completed her sailing trials and IMOCA 90 and 180 tests. The boat designed for Whitbread/Volvo and twice Vendee Globe veteran Dominique Wavre will arrive in Zeebrugge in three weeks time onboard a cargo ship. She will be off-loaded and rigged again before being sailed to her home base of La Rochelle. Onboard for the delivery will be Dominique’s support team, sail-makers from Incidences and lead designer Merfyn Owen.
Created by an international team of designers brought together by Owen Clarke Design, Temenos is the latest in Open 60 technology, much of her design and hence photographs are closely guarded. The project has benefited from a research and development program that has included tank testing, CFD, FEA, and materials testing along with a complete review of the entire structure of the yacht. There has been input from no less than five design associates of ours from the world of the Americas Cup. In the words of Merfyn Owen, “As with our previous development designs, of over a hundred final drawings, not one of them is the same as any other Open 60 we have completed.” The design team of ten was created to carry out this full development design with the goal of winning the 2007 Barcelona World Race and the 2008 Vendee Globe.
Her skipper Dominique Wavre and his sponsor Temenos have chosen to invest both in research, new technology as well as time on the water by launching the boat early in time for this year’s Route de Rhum. She was the first new Open 60 to be launched for the next Vendee Globe. This is our fifth Open 60 and the fourth to feature a tank test program, a unique record in the field of canting keel twin rudder designs. A fact that will not be lost on prospective teams for the next Volvo Race.
Once back in Europe Dominique will be testing the theory as with the sailing trials completed the time now is set aside for sail training and developing the boat’s potential to the maximum in the short time before the start of the Route de Rhum.
For more information on the boat go to: www.dominiquewavre.com
For more information on our Open 60 work go to: Owen Clarke Design Open 60 |
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