Sixth boat for the Volvo Ocean Race

From the team that brought us Assa Abloy

Hot on the heels of the Brasil 1 announcement four weeks ago, it has now been confirmed that the design and build of another boat is underway at Green Marine in Lymington, UK. This takes the total number of boats entered in the Volvo Ocean Race to six with at least four other teams close to completion as the race nears the year to go mark.

The team will be headed by Richard Brisius and Johan Salen. Their Swedish-based company Atlant achieved three podium finishes in the last three Whitbread/Volvo races. Joining them will be fellow Swede, Magnus Olsson, who brings the experience of five round the world races with him.

The lines of the new Volvo Open 70 will be an exclusive drawing from Farr Yacht Design. Construction will begin immediately, overseen by Britain’s Jason Carrington who carried out a similar role with the Assa Abloy team for the last race.

Angus Buchanan, Head of Sponsorship at the Volvo Ocean Race, commented: “This latest announcement provides a glimpse of the momentum building behind the event with 12 months remaining before the race start. We have always been confident that we would have at least eight boats on the start line and now we have a good chance of exceeding that number.

“We understand that the sponsor of Boat 6 will take a bit more time to officially unveil as they will be tying their announcement in to a major marketing campaign to be launched during the spring of 2005“.