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#VOR – The Volvo Ocean Race will have eight boats next time round and in a major departure from the current race a new design has been revealed. The idea is to reduce the cost of mounting a competitive campaign and stem dwindling entry numbers.  The new design was revealed as details of the Notice of Race and the race route for the 2014 VOR were discussed by Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad at a presentation in Lorient, France this morning, the ninth host port of the race.

The first new boats 65 will launch in June 2013. One new boat will launch every seven weeks. The price of the VO 65 is €4.5m,  about a million less than the current box rule boats which will be obsolete when the fleet hits Galway next week. Finance of the new yacht design and the production of the boat will be underwritten by the race sponsor Volvo.

The new boats will be built by th UK's Greene Marine.

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Knut Frostad reveals the new 65 footer this morning. Photo: Ian Roman/VOR

The one design will have eight crew plus a media man. The race is keen to attract female teams which will have 10 crew.

Renderings of the new Volvo Ocean Race boat design that will be used in the next two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race. The new boat design from Farr Yacht Design was unveiled today.

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The Dragon was designed by Johan Anker in 1929 as an entry for a competition run by the Royal Yacht Club of Gothenburg, to find a small keel-boat that could be used for simple weekend cruising among the islands and fjords of the Scandinavian seaboard. The original design had two berths and was ideally suited for cruising in his home waters of Norway. The boat quickly attracted owners and within ten years it had spread all over Europe.

The Dragon's long keel and elegant metre-boat lines remain unchanged, but today Dragons are constructed using the latest technology to make the boat durable and easy to maintain. GRP is the most popular material, but both new and old wooden boats regularly win major competitions while looking as beautiful as any craft afloat. Exotic materials are banned throughout the boat, and strict rules are applied to all areas of construction to avoid sacrificing value for a fractional increase in speed.

The key to the Dragon's enduring appeal lies in the careful development of its rig. Its well-balanced sail plan makes boat handling easy for lightweights, while a controlled process of development has produced one of the most flexible and controllable rigs of any racing boat.