"I think we're coming with the right changes at the right time: these rules reduce the cost of winning a Volvo Race; it makes it attractive for many more teams to participate (…) At the same time, we continue to ensure that the Volvo 70s do the fastest and most spectacular monohulls in the world."
On the occasion of the presentation of the changed rules for the next edition of the race, Volvo Ocean Race Manager Knud Frostad was optimistic that the event will defy the economic crisis. In fact, the framework conditions, some of which have been worked on very extensively, seem to show that they seem willing to step on the brakes on costs. With budgets ranging from 10 to over 30 million euros for a team, it is certainly not a wrong decision. But the new rules not only changed technical parameters, there were also many new things in the format of the event itself
In the future, there will be an in-port race in every stopping harbor, for which crew changes and technical changes to the boat will no longer be possible. In addition, the scoring system will be changed. With a new weighting of the scoring, the stage wins are given more weight, while the importance of the scoring gates and in-port races is reduced somewhat. The starting port for the next three editions of the Volvo Race will be Alicante in Spain, as was the case most recently. The other route and destination ports are not to be announced until March 2010.
The core of the new rule, however, is to limit the technical effort that teams are allowed to invest in order to win the race. The most important changes for this:
- Each team is only allowed to build one new boat. Two-boat campaigns like those from Ericsson and Telefonic are still possible, but the "A-Team" is no longer allowed to use the second-built, further developed boat after tests.
- New buildings may no longer be optimized using comparison drives. The latest generation of boats may be used for this purpose, but only for the last eight months before the start if they are also participating in the race. Otherwise, the number of permitted training days will be limited to 110 for 2010.
- The keel and the fin may only be changed once, just as only one replacement rig and boom may be kept. Oars and swords may be modified / replaced twice.
- The number of sails will be reduced from 15 before the race and 17 during the race (previously 24).
The route is clear: the big lead that well-financed two-boat campaigns had in the last two editions of the race due to the enormous technical research and development effort is to be reduced. In this way, teams that found a sponsor late, such as Green Dragon recently, should still be able to be reasonably competitive. The organizers are finally hoping for a double-digit starting field again in the Volvo Ocean Race.
