PUMA Ocean Racing, skippered by Ken Read (Newport, USA), is proud to announce that New England Boatworks Inc. has been contracted to build PUMA’s new Volvo 70 for the upcoming VOLVO OCEAN RACE 2011-2012. Design for this latest generation round the world race yacht will be provided by Valencia based Naval Architecture firm Juan Yacht Design. Juan Kouyoumdjian’s designs have a perfect record in the VOR since the inception of the Volvo Open 70 Rule. They are credited with designing the 2006 VOR winner ABN AMRO One and the 2009 VOR winner Ericsson 4.
The project is still in the early stages, with molds currently in production. Read, speaking to the newly formed NEB/PUMA Ocean Racing build team, confirmed that this new project will take full advantage of the years of experience assembled between the PUMA build group and NEB’s boatbuilding team. After placing second in the last Volvo Ocean Race in 2009 Read insisted that the PUMA program will utilize all the hard-earned experience gained during the last race to give the team a great starting point. “We feel that PUMA Ocean Racing has an advantage by keeping the construction of all the major components for this project close to our home base in Newport,” said Read. “Fortunately, NEB provides our team the perfect facility and team to build what we hope is the finest boat ever constructed for this type of race.”
NEB has proven offshore boat building experience, with projects that include the Whitbread 60, TOSHIBA for the 1997 Whitbread Round-the-World Race. “These boats are designed to withstand the harshest conditions, and we’re proud to have this opportunity to showcase NEB on a global level,” said NEB partners Tom Rich, Steven Casella and David MacBain.
PUMA will launch and begin sea trials in Spring 2011 out of their training base at the Newport Shipyard.
August 11, 2010
As many of you know, our skipper Ken Read is quite familiar with the J/24 class. The J/24 is one of the most popular one-design class and is sailed on an international level. So it only seemed natural to help out an up and coming team.
A few weeks ago we got an email from a J/24 team looking for sponsorship. The proposal was very well put together and professional. This request came from a group of college sailors who were looking to take their skills to a more competitive level, thus began their campaign for a world championship as a youth team. The J/24 class granted them a berth spot their for a youth team, which meant everyone on the crew is under the age of 25. And while at Worlds, the team will be wearing PUMA gear.
The team is expecting to finish mid-fleet. “Many of these teams have been sailing for longer than we’ve been alive and have many more European, North American and World Championship experience,” said Eric Berreveld, bowman. “We’re confident that our team will have moments to shire and are making a splash in the J/24 community- not only for youths in J/24 but also for the US J/24 class.”
As you read, the team is training in Malmo, Sweden (and losing soccer teams to the German youth team). J/24 Worlds begins on August 15, and we wish this team the best of luck. While not a PUMA sponsored team, we do consider this crew friends of PUMA and will keep you updated on their adventure, both on and off the water.
Collin Leon and Sam Stokes get some real SWEDISH fish
Fresh off the boat, check out the new Sailing Performance Backpack for Fall. We carried our backpack around the world during the last Volvo and it goes on our list of favorite gear items. This bag is water repellent and is built to stand up to extreme conditions. Features a two way zip for easy access. Plus…it’s PVC free, making it environmentally friendly.
PUMA’s navigator Tom Addis is featured in this week’s Volvo podcast. Tom sailed with Telefonica Blue during the last Volvo and signed up with PUMA this spring. In the podcast, Tom debriefs us on the Bermuda Race, non-sailing life, and what he’s doing now to help prepare for the Volvo 2011-12.
Kenny sent an email last night telling us, “Today was unreal. Brad (Jackson) and I smoked Casey and Tim Dawson for a round of Dark & Stormies.” Keep in mind, this has nothing to do with sailing, the guys were spending their afternoon on the Port Royal Golf Course. Our skipper made sure to note “this is the where they’ll be playing the PGA Grand Slam.” Makes you wonder, do golfers sail in their free time…
Ok, enough golf, back to sailing. il mostro left Bermuda last evening and is expected to arrive back to Newport on Thursday. The same crew will sail the delivery back, giving PUMA time to train and test out a few things. Our crew will then have a few weeks off before entering another testing session later in the summer.
“Mission accomplished. il mostro crossed the finish line at 7:41 local Bermuda time this morning and our whole team is very pleased with the results. We spent the entire race sailing around all the big boats, and we were able to hold our own. Our finish of second place overall is an accomplishment our whole team is proud of.”
“This race threw a lot of light-air upwind sailing at us- not prefect conditions for a Volvo 70. But we more than held our own, sailed well, and finished second boat for boat behind the 100 foot Speedboat. We had some good competition out there and that helped our team to get into ‘race-mode’. The crew is communicating well, which is key at this early stage in the program. We’ll use what we learned about how we work as a team and build on that as we move forward in our training.”
“For now we’re very pleased to be in Bermuda. We’ll squeeze in a round of golf and a few Dark and Stormies before we head out Tuesday night for another training session back to Newport.”
-Ken Read, Skipper PUMA Ocean Racing powered by Berg Propulsion
Kenny and the boys had a nice start in 13-15 knots of wind yesterday. They were the last class to start at 4:30pm, almost a hour behind the Rambler, who they hope to catch. PUMA is now in three knots of wind and should be stuck there all day. Finish time is lokoing like Monday night right now.
Kimo Worthington is the man in charge of all things shore and sailing here at PUMA. As the GM of our team, Kimo is always busy but some how managers to keep the program running smoothing. He caught up with Sailing Anarchy TV yesterday at our offices in the Newport Shipyard.
As the PUMA Ocean Racing powered by Berg Propulsion team preps for the Bermuda Race on Friday, we caught up with our skipper yesterday. Kenny, a Rhode Island native grew up with this race. “I did my first Bermuda race when I was seventeen, so I think that puts my count up to 12 of these races (?!?). This is an ocean racing classic,” said our PUMA skipper. “I remember the good old days where I used to be a bit nervous heading out into the ocean and the great unknown.” After sailing around the world, the Bermuda Race is still a great adventure, but a little different now. “This is really just a bit more than a day race for us”, said Read. “The boat is fast and we’re pushing to get down to the finish as quick as possible.”
For PUMA, the Bermuda Race is a great opportunity to test the crew, boat, sails and all the little parts and pieces. “We still have il mostro and we’re going to get as much as we can out of the old girl. Our team has a schedule throughout the summer that includes everything we want to work on.” Kenny went on to explain, “Putting ourselves in a racing situation is key. Simply testing the boat has a whole different mentality- there is a lack of tension onboard, but when you’re race-testing it’s just a whole different feeling onboard. Even though this isn’t a high pressure event for us, racing brings out different reactions, adds the element of intensity, and make the crew push the boat a bit harder. I’m a big promoter of doing as much race-testing as we can.”
Unlike the NYYC Regatta this past weekend, when PUMA was sailing under IRC handicap rules, the team expects to be a bit more competitive during the Bermuda Race. “In this race, we’re sailing under the ORR handicap system so the fact that we’re not racing against any other Volvo 70’s really is not a huge factor. What that means is that all the boats with canting keels (all three of us) are in the same division. We’ll be calling ourselves the bizarre and abnormal division.” In addition to PUMA, this division includes the 100 foot Speedboat and 90 foot Genuine Risk. Kenny has also pin pointed a few similar sized boat, like Rambler and Bella Mente, and will treat them as if they were head to head battles. “It’s not the same as the typical racing we do, but we’ll try to create as much pressure as we can.”
Looking at the forecast, it’s very light air- unfortunately. So the record of getting down to Bermuda in 48 hours will mostly likely stay in tact, it’s highly unlikely anyone will beat that time with the forecast right now. We’re expecting the race will take us about 30% longer- so we’ll finish sometime mid-Monday.
We’ll report back once the guys get off the line tomorrow.
