VIRBAC, IMOCA 60 Racing Yacht

Designer’s Notes

In early 2002 Farr Yacht Design was commissioned by Jean Pierre Dick to develop an Open 60 design targeted at winning the 2004-2005 Vendee Globe, widely regarded as the most intensive and extreme single-handed around the world race. The Open 60 class, as its name implies, is a development class that has spawned a wide array of new technological developments in yacht design including the use of wing mast spars, PBO & aramid rigging, canting keels and water ballast. The principal design brief for this project was to develop a state-of-the-art Open 60 specifically designed for winning the 2004-2005 Vendee Globe Race. Beyond that, our desire was to develop a safe, easy handling design capable of achieving a high percentage of its theoretical performance potential while being sailed single-handed.