Sailing: Volvo to fight criticism with new format

There will be plenty of frayed nerves on the waters of the Baltic off Gothenburg on Saturday, when the final leg of the Volvo Ocean Race to Kiel kicks off. But some shoreside fears were calmed yesterday when Volvo announced that the future of its round the world race is assured.

Volvo has taken note of the criticism about the race becoming too corporate, too much of a commercial platform, too long, and too expensive.

So, under the new format for 2005/2006, all will welcome a shorter time scale and fewer stopovers. The route, to be announced next spring, will probably see Southampton retained as the launch pad and take in Southern Africa, Australasia – Auckland would be first choice – a return to Rio in South America, just one US stop, and then back to the finish, probably Gothenburg, where fans have turned out in their tens of thousands.

But first discussions will be about a bigger boat, though not of the 90-foot dimensions proposed by some. The Bruce Farr design office was at preliminary talks held in Sweden last weekend, where one solution put forward was the standardisation of keels and masts but with a number of hull shape options offered to syndicates.