Green Dragon Volvo Open 70 is a truly global affair;
The build has been funded privately by a syndicate of Irish business people, and the principal sponsors are a consortium of Chinese companies. The hull was built in China with a US design.
To complete the jigsaw a number of key components are from around the world: the mast was made by Southern Spars New Zealand, the sails from North Sails UK; rudders and dagger boards from McConaghy Australia; keel bulb from Irons Brothers UK and the keel fin built in the USA. The Green Dragon crew is also an international affair with crew from Ireland, China, UK,
Australia and New Zealand.
Designers: Reichel Pugh Yacht Design USA
Reichel Pugh naval architecture and yacht design have a pedigree of success in ocean racing that is second to none. Based in San Diego, Reichel Pugh are one of the top three designers in the world and a pioneer in canting keel technology. Past designs have included Super Maxi’s such as, Alfa Romeo and Wild Oats two of the most successful and fastest canting keel offshore racing yachts on the planet.
Boat constructed: McConaghys Boats Zuhai, China
Build start date: Oct 2007
Completion date: April 2008
McConaghy Boats is a company with one of the highest reputations within the sailing world, who are synonymous with the construction of the worlds most technologically advanced large ocean racing yachts. McConaghy Boats bring over four decades of experience to the Green Team and a testimony that includes winners of all the worlds’ major offshore and inshore competitions and the Americas Cup.
Mast: Southern Spars New Zealand
Southern Spars are world leaders in carbon spar design and engineering. Each Volvo Ocean Race team will have a custom designed rig built to suit their exact requirements, in order to withstand the range of loads and conditions that the race will throw at them. Southern Spars bring innovative thinking and superb craftsmanship, having produced an unrivalled number of ‘world firsts’ from building the world’s first carbon fibre spar to designing innovative products such as its highly acclaimed furling booms.
Sails: North Sails UK
One of the world’s premier sail makers, brings decades of experience in the world of ocean racing, supplying the top offshore racing sailors in the world of Open 60, Volvo 70 and record breaking racing yachts. Their 3DL™ sail technology has dominated Grand Prix sailboat racing worldwide. 3DL sails were used on 11 of twelve America’s Cup teams and every team racing in both the 2002-2003 and 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race.
Rudders & Dagger boards: McConaghy boats, Australia
Keel bulb: Irons Brothers UK
In March 1925 three “Irons” brothers purchased the premises and equipment of G Harris a specialist in the production of water pumps in the small market town of Wadebridge for a sum of £350. The business evolved and was incorporated as Irons Brothers Ltd. in May 1930. Irons Brothers traded as a foundry and general engineering works servicing the busy Cornish Clay industry and continuing the production of vacuum pumps. The Second World War saw the company involved in the production of components for the war effort, including parts for tanks, in addition to their core business.
As the Cornish clay industry waned the company diversified into new areas and the first keel was produced in the 1960’s in grey iron. The 1970’s saw the expansion of keel production and the introduction of lead melting facilities. The company continued to specialise in keel production and is now one of the largest keel suppliers in Europe. Irons Brothers is still owned and run by the family from the original site and looks forward to many more years of successful trading.
Irons Brothers
Fast Facts
The largest spinnaker on the Volvo Open 70 is 500 m², equal to two tennis courts in area
The height of the Volvo Open 70 mast is 31.5 metres (103.3 feet), the height of over 7 double-decker buses
The overall length of the Volvo Open 70 is 21.5 metres (70.5 feet), the length of two double decker buses
Draft - 4.5m (with canting keel system)
The Volvo Open 70 can exceed speeds of 30 knots, over 55 km per hour
The World Sailing Speed Record for distance covered by a monohull within 24 hours is held by a Volvo Open 70, ABN AMRO TWO, which covered 562.96 nautical miles
Volvo Open 70 Boat Design:
Innovation has always been the signature of the Volvo Ocean Race and a new design of boat was introduced for the 2005-06 event. With development in mind, a forum of skippers, boat designers, sail and rig manufacturers, syndicate heads and representatives from the Volvo Ocean Race collaborated to produce a state-of-the-art 70 foot monohull race boat, the Volvo Open 70.
As with any new design, the Volvo Open 70 has certainly had its share of problems in the early stages of its development. There will be no wholesale changes made to the design, but the lessons learned on the last race will be utilized to amend the rule and guide the designers as they endeavour to produce faster, safer, more reliable boats. The Volvo Open 70 is the current class of racing yachts designed for the Volvo Ocean Race. It was first used in the 2005-2006 race (replacing the Open 60 yachts which were first used in 1993) and use a Canting keel which is capable of canting transversely up to an angle of 40 degrees. According to the VO70 rule, the yachts can be made from glass fibres, aramid fibres, or carbon fibres (which were not allowed for the VO60’s).
NB: A canting keel is a form of sailing ballast, suspended from a rigid canting strut beneath the boat, which can be swung to windward of a boat under sail, in order to counteract the heeling force of the sail. The canting keel must be able to pivot to either port or starboard, depending on the current tack.
Originally used in large maxi yachts such as the maxZ86, canting keels are now beginning to appear in smaller boats such as the Open 60, and the VO70 ocean racing classes, and the even smaller Schock 40 and Mini 650. The Schock 40 owned by Tom Schock famously lost its keel and capsized, illustrating the fundamental problem with complicated keel design: without a keel, most boats cannot float upright.
While previous years’ boats showed a small percentage improvement in speed each race, the VO70 class is showing an incredible 30% improvement in speed. The 6.5 ton ballast bulb, hanging over 16 feet (5 meters) below the water, and which are capable of canting up to 40 degrees, produces a tremendous amount of righting moment (over 130,000 ft·lbf, or 176,000 N·m with the hull level), allowing the boat to reach speeds of over 30 knots.
VO70 Measurements:
Overall Length: 21.5m (70.5ft) (max)
Beam: 5.0m to 5.7m
Draft: 4.5m (below DWL)
Mast height: 31.5m (above DWL)
Weight: 13,860kg to 14,000kg
Keel Weight: 6,000kg to 7,400kg
Design changes over the years:
Whitbread 1973 to 1974 The first race. All types of yachts, from 32 to 80 feet, 1 or two masts. They do not have much technology to rely on. They report their positions once a week by radio, which means they rarely know where their rivals are.
Whitbread 1977 to 1978 and Whitbread 1981 to 1982 Still multiple classes of yachts, with a handicap according to their rating.
Whitbread 1985 to 1986 The year that 80 foot Maxi yachts run in the Whitbread, purpose built ocean racers, although not as extreme as modern day classes.
Whitbread 1989 to 1990 For the first time, the race is judged with a points system over each of the sailing legs.
Whitbread 1993 to 1994 W60 “box rule” class is introduced, but the Maxis still race in their class. Big improvements in onboard technology. Although there are 2 divisions, the Maxis and the W60’s are fairly evenly matched.
Whitbread 1997 to 1998 and Volvo Ocean Race 2001 to 2002 W60s continue to develop, evolving into the extreme ocean racers we see now in the Volvo Ocean Race, the Open 60 and Open 70 classes. Onboard cameras allow live footage of the racing.
Volvo Ocean Race 2005 to 2006 Open 70’s were 1000 kg lighter than the previous 60 feet boats, with a bigger sail area, and canting keels.
Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009: There have been further advancements to the VO70 rule for the latest edition of the race, based on lessons learned from the previous generations of boats. Emphasis has been made on increasing the reliability of the boats by setting a maximum keel, fin and bulb weight, and as well as banning the use of Titanium in the canting keel rams.
List of key changes:
→ Maximum weight for keel, fin and bulb of 7.4 tonnes
→ A reduction in the overall weight range of the boat to 13.86-14.00 tonnes (previously 12.5-14 tonnes)
→ A ban on bomb doors
→ All spinnakers may be furled and one additional masthead spinnaker to be added to the inventory
→ Set appendage configuration – two dagger boards and one or two rudders
→ No spinnaker poles
→ Ban on titanium in keel rams
Sails onboard
The objective has been to create sails that are light, and easy to handle but also strong enough to maintain their shapt( and therefore their power) and are durable so they won’t break in the harsh and variable conditions they will be subject to. The sail wardrobe for Green Dragon has been developed and manufactured by North Sails using the latest 3DL technology that moulds the sails in one complete section. The sails are moulded at North Sails USA in Nevada. For the sake of longevity Kevlar fibres have been used instead of carbon alongside a mylar film on each side of the sail.
VO70 GREEN DRAGON Sail Inventory:
Mainsail area: 175 m² (max)
Spinnaker area: 300 m² to 500 m²
Storm Jib: 30 m² to 35 m²
Heavy Weather Jib: 94 m² (max)
Masthead Spinnaker: 300 m² to 500 m²
Fractional Spinnaker: 350 m² (max)
Storm Trysail: 36 m² to 41 m²
