Fourth time lucky

Jon Amtrup attempts to prise information out of the Atlant team about their new Swedish Volvo Ocean Race project

When, uniquely, a Volvo Ocean Race project came knocking on the door of Atlant's Stockholm-based office, the highly successful Swedish race and race boat management team leapt into action jump starting their fourth around the world project. Rounding up the usual suspects, off they went with a Farr-designed Volvo Open 70 due to hit the water in May 2005.

Richard Brisius founded Atlant together with Johan Salèn (to read more about Atlant - click here) and to date have run three high success Whitbread and Volvo Ocean Race campaigns: Intrum Justitia with Lawrie Smith at the helm came second in 1993-94, four years later they returned with the two boat EF team, including Paul Cayard's race winner EF Language and in 2000 Assa Abloy second in the hands of skipper Neal McDonald. Apart from delivering very good results on the water, Atlant's projects have stuck out from the crowd every time as highly successful commercial projects. All their sponsors have walked away with a happy simile and return on investment.

In all three of their round the world projects to date the Atlant office has spent considering time knocking down hundreds of boardroom door years in advance to get the funding in place. For them the old adage that the hardest part of a major yacht race is to get to the starting line has applied in full. But this time they skipped that part. At a time when they where fully focussed on their ever expanding multihull event, the Nokia Oops Cup, a project came knocking on their door and asked if they could manage their involvement in the next Volvo Ocean Race.

"To be honest it was more of being in the right place at the right time," says Brisius.

They signed the contract in the end of October and the building of the new Volvo Open 70 is well under way. The name of the boat and the sponsor will not be revealed before the spring 2005, but Brisius says the main sponsor is planning to use its entry in the Volvo Ocean Race as a part of a major worldwide marketing campaign.

For the design, Atlant returned for the third time to Farr Yacht Design, thereby ensuring that the gurus from Annapolis have three boats - at least - in the next race. Although Farr has proved the safe choice in the Volvo Ocean 60 class, it was not so obvious a choice for the new VO70. The class is a whole new ballgame with a canting keel, less crew, larger sails and not the least: The boat has to come off the blocks with a winning combination for both inshore and offshore regattas.

"We talked to most of the major designers before we made our decision," says Brisius. "It was not an easy process and I really hope that the other designers that have invested a lot of time and money in developing a VO70 find projects with money. But they had better not be as good as ours..." quips Brisius.

Much like the first generation VO60 design, Brisius thinks that we will see a lot of different designs for the new VO70. The rule allows almost one metre variation on the beam of the boat and according to Brisius the most obvious differences in hull shape will be seen there. Then there are the choice of appendages - most are expected to opt for twin asymmetric boards to go with their canting keel. It all depends on what kind of weather studies you trust and how you weigh offshore performance up against inshore performance. This time the Volvo Ocean Race starts November 5, not September, and features round the buoys inshore regattas counting for 20 percent of the overall points. These are the fundamental considerations designers must consider before deciding on the boatshape. The price tag for a new boat will be around 4 millions Euros.

"The boats are really radical," says Brisius. "For a multihull fan it's good to see that this class is about the most exciting thing you can do on a monohull. The apparent wind angle will almost never go behind 90 degrees. You can have a 500sqm chute on it and the freeboard isn’t much higher than on a VO60. It’s definitely going to be a wet boat and I think it’s going to be more off a struggle to reduce power in these boats in order to avoid breakdowns than to maximise their speed potential." Brisius is very involved in the design and build process and spend a lot of time travelling to Green Marine in UK where their new boat is being constructed.



Jason Carrington (left) with Magnus Olssen four years ago during the build of Assa Abloy

The build of the new boat is being managed by Jason Carrington as he did for Assa Abloy and once again Carrington is going down the female mould route to save weight in fairing. During the last race Assa Abloy was acknowledged as having the lightest hull (and therefore biggest bulb) in the fleet. Carrington is being ably supported by fellow former Assa Abloy crewman Richard Mason. Aside from building the boat both are also highly likely to once again end up as members of the sailing team, but Brisius says nothing is decided before the skipper is on board.

From Green Marine's perspective, Ian King, co-founder of the company is playing a vital role in the construction of the boat. Aside from the work Farr Yacht Design have done, Carrington and Green Marine have been carrying out their R&D work on the build, before the first tub of resin is mixed.

"Ian King and the rest of team at Green is a big asset for the build," says Brisius. "He has vast knowledge and is still keen on developing new methods that will make the boat both lighter and stronger. Weight is an even bigger factor with this class than with the VO60s. Not only can you put the weight you save on the boat in the keel, but you can also swing it out. The hunt for less weight is full on".

Atlant has not yet decided on which sail loft they will use, but on their two last projects they worked with North Sails Sweden and North Sails Denmark respectively. The only decision they have reached so far is that they will rely more on in-house sail design for this project in a style similar to America's Cup teams.

Another key member of Atlant's team is Swedish sailing legend Magnus 'Mange' Olsson, who has been a part of most of Atlant's projects. This time Olsson will be waving the boat off from the dock having completed his last round the world race on Assa Abloy. Olsson is both an engineer and a boat designer by profession and that combined with his huge sailing experience gives him a valuable edge to the design. He knows how too communicate with the designers and ask the right questions, says Brisius. But he also has another quality that makes him a vital part of Atlant's projects - his world famous smile and jovial temperament. "Magnus is a unique motivator and that combined with his skills is a killer combination," says Brisius.

Olssen will be skippering his 60 foot trimaran in next year's Nokia Oops Cup while keeping up the good spirit of Atlant's Volvo project.

Brisius says that the skipper of their boats has not yet been chosen, although he and Johan Salèn are talking to a small number of world class skippers. They want one with a track record for these kind of regattas and that list is not very long. One obvious man for the role would be Neal McDonald after his promising performance on Assa Abloy, but MacDonald is currently busy in a last ditched attempt to secure a sponsor for his own Volvo project with wife Lisa. Brisius is leaving the matter of crew selection to the skipper they choose and the possibility of female crewmembers being among the crew will be left up to him.

"We are looking for an international crew with the qualifications to succeed," concludes Brisius. "Nationality or gender is not an issue. A lot of sailors and shore crew have been in contact and we hope too commit the skipper soon." In the meantime the Atlant team are keeping their cards closely to their chest.