CAMPER announced today that experienced Spanish round-the-world yachtsman Roberto Bermudez de Castro has joined the team. The build and yacht preparation schedule was also introduced, with construction of the VO70 yacht starting in early August.
It will be the fifth round-the-world race for Bermudez, most recently as skipper of Team Delta Lloyd in 2008-09. He was a watch captain on Brasil 1 in 2005-06 and raced the southern ocean legs on board ASSA ABLOY in 2001-02.
Known throughout the sailing word as "Chuny", his first round-the-world encounter was as watch leader and helmsman onboard the Spanish entry Galicia '93 Pescanova in the 1993-94 Whitbread.
Chuny, who represented Spain at the Athens Olympics in 2004, has been a regular on the competitive MedCup TP52 circuit and sailed with the Spanish America's Cup team at San Diego in 1995 and at Auckland in 2000.
"I'm very excited to be able to sail this race again," he smiled. "I think I've got the same excitement and desire to do it as I did the first time round."
"Everybody appreciates that it's an extremely difficult course and especially when we're competing with a team of this quality. Our only objective here is to win," Chuny explained. "We've got a lot of long months of hard work ahead of us so we need to prepare ourselves well so that we can be in the best situation on the start line."
Emirates Team New Zealand manages the CAMPER project, and CEO Grant Dalton is delighted that Bermudez has signed on. "He brings huge experience to us and we're very lucky to have Chuny," he confirmed, adding "I can tell you that everybody wants this guy on their boat, with four round the world races already. He's still got a lot more to go until he gets to me, but he's already done four!"
Dalton also confirmed that the design team, led by principal designer Marcelino Botin of Botin Carkeek Yacht Design, has almost completed the design process.
Operations manager Kevin Shoebridge said, "We have almost 20 naval architects, structural and mechanical engineers, CFD (computational fluid dynamics) engineers, sail and mast designers and software developers based at Auckland and Santander working on the CAMPER project.
"Multiple hull designs and sail combinations have been run through a CFD computer program which computes air and water flow," he continued. "The sail design team has already had two sessions in the Auckland University wind tunnel."
"Marcelino Botin and skipper Chris Nicholson have overseen tank-tests on hull models at Southampton, England, and Liege, Belgium," Shoebridge added. Scale models underwent 300 tests over six days at the high-speed tank at Liege to test computer design projections on the quite different hullforms of the VO 70 yacht, and the results have allowed the quick assessment of hull shape as well as positioning of rudders and keel.
Dalton is certain that the design team will produce a quick boat, but believes that in the end it is the people who sail the boat and the people who put it together that will deliver their success.
"I think we have a huge respect for the boats that are being built today and the teams that are being built today," he commented, "and I guess we use the normal Emirates Team New Zealand philosophy that the detail will actually be the difference in the end, and the sailing of the boat."
With the yacht build scheduled to start on August 9 at the Cookson Yard at Auckland, the design team will come together next week to make final decisions.
Boat builders will start building the mould, the first step in a process that will involve more than 30 tradesmen and over 38,000 hours.
The hull and deck will be constructed from carbon fibre over a nomex honeycomb core, to produce a light but very strong hull capable of standing up to the rigours of the 39,000 nautical mile race.
The yacht - with deck hardware, electrical, electronic and hydraulic systems fitted - will be trucked to the Emirates Team New Zealand base in early April. Keel, bulb and rudders will be fitted before the yacht is rigged.
Three months of sea trials off New Zealand will follow. The sailing crew will be looking for strong winds and big seas to test handling and reliability before shipping the yacht to Europe in July.
From Volvo Ocean Race
