While final preparations and team announcements continue for the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-2018, the event’s leadership team are working in parallel to map out the race’s future. The edition after this one, the fourteenth, will be contested in brand new One Design racing yachts designed by France’s Guillaume Verdier and built under the direction of the Persico boatyard in Italy, race organisers announced today.

Verdier has joined the Volvo Ocean Race design team and is currently working with the race on the crucial issue of whether the new boat will be a mono or multihull. The final decision on the proposed designs will be announced on May 18 at an event in Gothenburg, the home of the race’s owners and title sponsors Volvo.

On the decision to award Persico the lead role in the building of the boats, rather than the Consortium approach used for the Volvo Ocean 65s, Nick Bice, the race’s Chief Technical Development Officer, said: “The Consortium did some good work last time around to produce such matched boats, but we prefer to contract this time with a single builder, who in turn will undoubtedly sub-contract a number of other builders around the world to achieve the build in time and to budget. Persico have been a strong partner over these past few years, and we are delighted to be working with them again”.