Several architects have made the design of Open 60 footers their speciality, including Finot design and Marc Lombard. More recently, some pools of designers such as Owen Clarke Design and Farr Yacht Design have successfully integrated the design of 60 footers.

Designed for sailing downwind – the favourite point of sail for a circumnavigation – these powerful monohulls with their planing hulls, took the form of flying saucers in the mid nineties, due to their excessive beaminess – almost 6 metres. Today, the architects have returned to some more reasonable mensurations, with an emphasis on versatility and the capacity to perform well on every point of sail.

A few particulars about the class: use of ballast tanks and/or a canting keel, some have rotating masts (but not canting), twin rudders with, additionally, one or several daggerboards. Certain boats are equipped with deck outriggers: large spreaders at the foot of the mast, also known as tuna rigs.


Indicative characteristics :

    * Construction materials: carbon/Nomex for the most modern boats
    * LOA: 18.288 m maximum
    * Beam (non-determined by the class measurement): around 5.50 m
    * Draught: 4.50 m maximum
    * Displacement: between 8 and 10 tonnes
    * Surface of upwind sails: between 250 and 300 m²
    * Surface of downwind sails: between 500 and 600 m²


The IMOCA Class :

The IMOCA (International Monohull Open Class Association), which was recognised as an international class by the ISAF in 1998, was launched sixteen years ago, just a few months before the start of the first edition of the Vendée Globe. Several ocean racers, who wanted to organise their sport and set up some specification rules for their 60-foot monohulls, decided to join together. Isabelle AUTISSIER, Christophe AUGUIN, Alain GAUTIER and Jean-Luc VAN DEN HEEDE were the founding members of the IMOCA, of which Luc TALBOURDET is the current chairman.

Today, the class brings together both fifty and sixty-foot Open boats - a good thirty boats - two categories of monohull, the measurements of which are governed by specifications, which remain open as far as the boat design is concerned, but are very precise in the area of safety (insubmersibility and stability rules…).

The major events for the class are the two non-stop round the world races, which take place every four years: the Vendée Globe (single-handed) and the Barcelona World Race (double-handed).
The other main events of the IMOCA championship are the classic single-handed transatlantic races “Route du Rhum” and “Artemis Transat”, as well as the Calais Round Britain Race (crewed). Starting 2009, the IMOCA European Pro Tour (series of races linking certain European major venues) will complete  the IMOCA class racing schedule.


The IMOCA class : explanations

Luc TALBOURDET, Class Chairman : «We are very excited to compete in the BtoB Transat. First of all, this race, which was long expected by the class, is a way for the boats and their skippers to get back to Europe after the Jacques Vabre transat as well as to test themselves and to qualify for the 2008 Vendee Globe.
However, this should not let us forget that the BtoB Transat is a real competition, on a very original (and rarely raced) “west-east” course, that the ultra competitive skippers of the IMOCA class will undoubtedly fight for until the end.
Also, the facts that a) the race will take place during the Paris boat show, b) the public can easily get passionate about sailors racing the atlantic winter single-handed and) the race arrives in Brittany – birthplace of France’s sailing -, should help to attract the public and media’s attention in surprising way…”

The Imoca class website : www.imoca.org (+logo)