Assa light boat, sirree!

Jason Carrington gives James Boyd a guided tour of the Volvo Ocean 60 ASSA ABLOY

Another interesting piece of tackle is for the flying block fairleads for the headsail sheets. These are on athwartship-mounted (as opposed to fore and aft mounted) tracks so the fairlead can be moved in or outboard. This is nothing new but also there is a system for raising or lowering the fairleads via a line which runs down through a block on the track, then forward on to the foredeck and back to the opposite track and flying block/fairlead on the other side of the boat, effectively forming a loop. When this loop is hauled forwards (via a line, going forward around a turning block and then aft back to the cockpit), the fairleads for the headsail sheets are hauled down, (a system that is less complex than this explanation of it).

ASSA ABLOY's pulpit has been cleverly designed so that the tack of their Code 0s can reach almost deck level like a proper jib. It is even legal apparently.

Perhaps the cleverest little gizmo we saw on board was effectively a replacement for a turning block. These was used instead of the bank of turning blocks one would normally expect to find at the mast step - for taking halyards, reefing lines, etc down the mast and back to the cockpit - and elsewhere for the spinnaker guys. On ASSA ABLOY instead of using a turning block, they use a half moon shaped piece of aluminium which is Teflon coated allowing the rope to slip around it with barely any friction. For the guys there are Teflon coated eyes mounted on the deck. The result is more weight saving and added reliability through having no moving parts.

Like all the crews in this event this time, who raced four years ago, Carrington is in praise of the carbon spar which is a lot stronger and more reliable than the alloy masts they used previously. "The rigs are so stiff. It is a case of chalk and cheese. In the old boats sailing in 15 knots with the Code 0s it was all a bit shakey. With these [carbon spars] you could sail properly upwind in 15-16 knots of breeze and the boat would be heeled over, but would be pretty comfortable with it."
Another new rule effectively makes it necessary for the boats to fit halyard locks that can be operated from on deck - previously halyard locks were used on the masthead kites but involved hurtling a crew to the top of the mast to release it whenever it needed to be dropped (often when conditions were getting fairly hairy). Halyard locks of this type were used on Silk Cut during the last race and this time are used on all the masthead headsails such as the Code Zeros and big gennikers.