August 30, 2021. 11th Hour Racing Team sets sail on their new IMOCA 60 during during the commissioning period after the boat was launched in August 2021. Photo by Amory Ross / 11th Hour Racing

Article Series About 11th Hour Racing Team’s New IMOCA 60, 11.2

Guest author Mark Chisnell has written a three-part article series about 11th Hour Racing Team’s new IMOCA 60, 11.2.

Part 1: The Design Challenge

11th Hour Racing Team’s new IMOCA 60, 11.2, was the first to be purpose-built for a four or five-person crew now that it will be used in the 2022-23 edition of The Ocean Race. Building a boat to the current IMOCA 60 rule has significant challenges when sustainability is your avowed goal.

“The primary objective of 11th Hour Racing is to change the narrative around sustainability in the marine and maritime industries, and in everyday life. We start the conversation with the springboard of competitive professional sailing, then provide concrete solutions or demonstrations of achievable success, in the hope of alleviating some of what can be a daunting proposition to engage with from zero,” Rob MacMillan, co-founder, and president of 11th Hour Racing.

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Part 2: The Design Solutions

11th Hour Racing sets sail for the first time on their brand new IMOCA 60 11.2 during the commissioning period after the boat was launched in August 2021. Photo by Ben Bireau / 11th Hour Racing
Photo by Ben Bireau | 11th Hour Racing

11th Hour Racing Team Skipper, Charlie Enright (USA), and Naval Architect, Guillaume Verdier (FRA) took the lead of many design choices as they worked to optimize 11.2’s performance.

“The marine environment is harsher than any other, even outer space; the salt, wind, sun, and incredible force of water work to corrode, break down, or tear apart everything onboard. It’s the reason why the marine industry is always chasing stronger and lighter materials and construction techniques. This has led to some very unsustainable solutions, and we must now start to rethink them. We have a design opportunity to make better design choices, choices that could echo or ripple out through other industries. This is a remarkable milestone as we work to change the narrative around sustainability in the marine and maritime industries,” Jeremy Pochman, co-founder and CEO of 11th Hour Racing.

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Part 3: The Build Story

August 23, 2021. 11th Hour Racing’s new IMOCA gets rolled out of the shed at MerConcept in Concarneau for launching and measuring.
Photo by Amory Ross | 11th Hour Racing

11th Hour Racing Team’s new IMOCA 60 – known as 11.2 – rolled out of the build shed at CDK Technologies in Port la Forêt, France, on August 9, 2021. The structural design assumed higher hull pressure loads n the slamming zones, so one of the first objectives will be to measure the loads that the boat’s experiencing as it’s pushed hard in tough conditions.

“The Team executed a full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the build of 11.2 in order to determine the environmental impact of the different components and procedures – building on a previous study done by Kairos in 2010. This will help the team establish a new benchmark and provide an understanding of how the IMOCAs have changed in the last ten years, and what needs to be done going forward,” Jeremy Pochman, co-founder and CEO of 11th Hour Racing.

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Header image credit: Amory Ross | 11th Hour Racing