The Green Team celebrated the completion of their new Volvo Open 70 with a "Thank You China Event" at McConaghy Boats in Zhuhai China. Construction started in October and has been completed on schedule, with the boat due to leave on a ship bound for the UK on 8th May.
The boat has been constructed in a facility located approximately 60 miles north of Hong Kong. The mainly Australian led team at McConaghy's has been working alongside American designers Reichel Pugh and structural engineers Applied Structural Analysis Ltd (ASTA) from the UK, as well as a 90 strong Chinese build team.
A total of 40,000 man hours have gone into the completion of this boat,
This is the first Volvo Ocean Race boat to be built in China; a region that has seen increased interest in the marine industry in recent years, most noticeably with its involvement in the 2007 America's Cup. McConaghy's has a strong international reputation, and they are one of the first professional build teams to have a facility in China.
With the build now complete the team will prepare the boat to be shipped back to Europe, with an anticipated arrival in the UK for the start of June. Once in the UK the boat will be assembled and tested for two weeks before heading to the team's homeport of Galway in Ireland, which will be the team's base before leaving for Alicante in September.
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