No picnic in the park

We look ahead to a new Volvo Ocean Race in a new Volvo-inspired class of boat described, in the nicest possible way, as brutal (and fantastic). Juan Kouyoumdjian, Adrienne Cahalan Tim Jeffery and Neal McDonald

The boats will be the story. It's almost as if when the new VO70 rule was first discussed, maybe at the dinner table, with the wine glasses recharged, the rough outline on the back of a napkin was never discarded as too outlandish. It became the real deal.

They are electrifying. Compared to the Whitbread/Volvo 60 they have replaced, the VO70 is 2m longer but only 500kg heavier. The masts are 4m higher and their spinnakers are bigger than an America's Cup boat, jumping from 300m2 to 480m2; so big it takes two or three people to lift them in their bag. And if the companionways seem scarily large for machines that will have solid green water coming across the decks, and will almost certainly be laid flat in an inside/out gybe, then it's because even at this aperture it is a struggle to get a chute through them in a drop.

If there's one thing that drives this message home it's the Race HQ's own schedule for the 31,250 miles, finalised a month before the start. The time projections just kept on tumbling. When the line was finally drawn, six days - six days - had been slashed off the preliminary Wellington-Rio de Janeiro leg time alone (to just 16 days). The average speed 18kt. Strewth!