Newport, RI, USA – (August 29, 2010)
PUMA OCEAN RACING POWERED BY BERG PROPULSION WILL BUILD
NEW VOLVO 70 AT NEW ENGLAND BOATWORKS
Puma Ocean Racing To Build Boat Near Training Base In Newport, RI, USA.
- 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.
The Volvo Ocean Race begins October 2011 in Alicante, Spain and ends in
Galway, Ireland in June 2012. The eight stopovers in between include: Cape
Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya (China), Auckland, Itajaí (Brazil), Miami, Lisbon
and Lorient (France). PUMA continues to produce and expand their line of
sailing performance gear and remains the first Sportlifestyle company to
participate in a venture of this kind. PUMA will also be the official
supplier of all Volvo Ocean Race merchandise.
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