Volvo Change

Volvo Change
Volvo Change

Video: Volvo Change

Video: Volvo Change
Video: ✅ VOLVO Language change❗замена языка на русский 🔥 2024, March
Anonim

Bit by bit, the format of the next Volvo Race is gaining in profile. After the technical rules for the boats were published a few weeks ago, there is now finally more specific framework data for the crews, the route and the type of stages. They contain some big surprises.

For example in terms of crew composition. Recently, a regulation is to regulate the age structure of the fellow sailors: In future, 30 percent of the crew must be under 30 years old, the only permitted exception is if every fellow sailor is over 50 years old! The rules for mixed crews and all-women teams have also been changed. If at least five women are on board, an additional twelfth seat is allowed on board, all-women crews can even be 14 people. A concession to the enormous physical demands of the Volvo 70.

In the last race, the only woman, navigator Adrienne Cahalann on board “Brazil 1”, disembarked after the first stage, probably also because she was physically overwhelmed when changing sails or maneuvers in extreme situations. This weighs particularly heavily, because the boats are considered to be latently understaffed anyway for cost reasons.

Another change should be of particular interest to the fans. From now on, every team has to take a “media professional” on board who is not allowed to participate in the “work of the crew”. On the one hand, they want to significantly improve on-board reporting and, on the other hand, ensure that all teams spend almost the same amount of time in terms of live video images, photos and e-mails. So far, the crew members responsible for this were who did this work on the side.

The second important focus of the new regulations concerns the route and the race format. It is clear that there will now be eleven instead of the previous only nine stages. There are also eight inport races and eight other so-called “Pro-Am” races. These are races with celebrities and guests that are not included in the rating and should be a concession to the sponsors. Only teams that can prove serious technical reasons are allowed to skip these PR appointments, otherwise there is a risk of points being deducted.

The eagerly awaited definitive route was postponed again this time. However, details have already become known, even if the definitive stopping port is still up for discussion. It is already clear that the start from Alicante in Spain will lead to South Africa after all. Most recently it was said that there was a kind of “giant stage” straight to the Middle East. This is still going on, but the destination has not yet been determined. Then the race leads to India, Southeast Asia and Chin (two stops). From there it goes either with a stop in Australia or New Zealand to Brazil. The stage to the west coast of the US (San Francisco), which was planned last but has to be realized at great expense, is omitted, but a stop on the east coast is due again. Then across the North Atlantic to Europe (three stops are under discussion: Holland, England or France) and on to Sweden. The subsequent port of destination is still open, Finland, Russia or, surprisingly, Germany are under discussion. It is unclear whether the latter is a bow to the German audience for the furious reception at the penultimate race in Kiel or signs that there is a German campaign behind the scenes.

Last but not least, the most important question for all Volvo Race fans: How many teams will participate in the next edition. Disappointingly, not much has happened in this regard. In addition to Ericsson and Mean Machine, no other team has signed up so far, even if the management around Andy Hindley and Glenn Bourke claims that there are four more firm commitments and another four that are almost ready to go. The hoped-for boom, which will secure participation beyond the 10-boat threshold, seems a long way off. Hopefully some teams will opt for two-boat campaigns like EF, ABN or Amer Sports before. So the number of registrations could ultimately skyrocket.

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