Owen Clarke secure design and project management contract for new Open 60 |
| Tuesday, 11 March 2003 |
| Owen Clarke Design LLP in addition to undertaking the design of the yacht have been contracted to project manage its construction and preparation up to the beginning of the Vendee Globe in 2004. Martin Carter who worked with Merfyn Owen during both the Mike Golding’s Team Group 4 and Ellen MacArthur’s Kingfisher(co-designed by Rob Humphreys and Merfyn Owen) Vendee Globe campaign will front that project management process. Working closely with Merfyn has been a design and consultancy team of ten professionals. These have included consultants and hydrodynamacists from the Americas Cup, engineers at SP Technologies and Southern Spars, as well as Owen Clarke’s French based naval architect Nadjean Geslain and New Zealand based designer Tim Sadler.
Unusually a research and development program commenced in June 2002 with the final design contract being awarded later in September after a MGYR had completed a tender process among existing open class designers including Farr, Finot and Lombard. Construction is well underway at Southern Ocean Marine’s yard in Tauranga, New Zealand, with both the deck and hull complete and the final stages of assembly and fit out underway.
Launch and builder’s trials will take place in June 2003, after which the yacht will be shipped back to Europe in time to compete in this year’s double handed Transat Jacques Vabres Race. Race preparations for the Vendee Globe start in June with the EuropeOneManSTAR followed by the main event in November 2004.
For more information and pictures:
www.mikegolding.com
www.pixsail.com/eng/ecover |
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