Assa light boat, sirree!

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

A unique aspect of ASSA ABLOY's interior is that through the combination of having no paint and the Corecell core material, the hull is translucent. "It's quite alarming at times as you can see the water going by," says Carrington. "But the real problem is at night when there are lights on down below. The whole deck lights up."

One gets the impression talking to Carrington that here is a man who enjoys the puzzle of beating the rules and developing new systems such as the ones mentioned in this article, as much, if not more so, than the race itself. But at the end of the day of the day even he admits that you can have as light a boat as you like, but it still needs to be put on the right part of the ocean at the right time relative to the other boats to win. There is also the opinion that could be levelled against ASSA ABLOY that too much innovation can lead to the increased risk of gear failure. Soon we shall see...