Vrolijk to design Mean Machine

Mean Machine has announced that Rolf Vrolijk (right in photo) is to design the team’s Volvo Open 70 for the next Volvo Ocean Race. With Ericsson having already snapped up Juan Kouyoumdjian in an exclusive deal, and with Farr Yacht Design bound to make a strong return for 2008/09, the next race is shaping up to be the most competitive offshore design contest witnessed for some time. Add to that the uncertainties of a new course that takes the race fleet to uncharted waters in the Far East (in V.O.R. terms at least) and the design challenge will be fascinating. This is what the Mean Machine press release had to say today.

Mean Machine have officially announced that Rolf Vrolijk and his team are to design the Mean Machine Volvo Open 70 which will race in the round the world Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009.
Mean Machine is the second official entry in this edition of the race, and yet again, they’ve chosen to trust in Vrolijk and his talented design team, to capture the spirit of sailing excellence that characterises what has become a global sailing platform over the last few years, spanning many different projects and classes.

The fact that Vrolijk has been named as the man to bring the Mean Machine VO 70 to life is no coincidence. One can look back as far as 20 years to see that a considerable number of the team’s successes have had the Vrolijk touch.

These two decades of teamwork have borne a healthy list of successes, which are all down to the special chemistry that comes from putting talent such as Mean Machine, Vrolijk and Peter de Ridder (left in photo) together. It’s a unique and special formula that few can enjoy.

Rolf Vrolijk explains the Mean Machine relationship: “It’s built on a long term relationship of trust between Peter De Ridder, the team and I. We’ve done several projects together and they have been very successful. We have also always worked as a team with the sailors and the feedback in both directions has worked very well for us. I think I can say that my relationship with Peter is very much like a friendship and over the years we have got to know each other very well.”

Echoing these words, Peter de Ridder explains that the special working relationship really has yielded a recipe for success: “I have had a very good and longstanding relationship with Rolf, since the mid-eighties. We work very well together and we both only need a few words to make ourselves clear to each other. Each time, the design process has become even more of a dialogue, which has ultimately meant that we’ve always built the boat with the exact characteristics we were aiming for. Also Rolf and Fietje Judel and all their staff are very easy to approach and to share ideas with.”

It all began back in 1985 with the very first Mean Machine (former Rubin), a Judel/Vrolijk One Tonner that Peter de Ridder took to the 1986 One Ton Cup in Mallorca. The boat finished in sixth place overall out of a fleet of thirty-five, and that was with a 100% amateur crew.

Following this success the Mean Machine fleet continued to grow, mainly under the watchful eye of the Judel/Vrolijk team . This saw brand new additions to the fleet, as succesful as the ILC 40 Mean Machine and the TP 52, which Peter de Ridder, along with Ray Davies and Dirk de Ridder sailed to victory in 2006 to take the most coveted of Mediterranean titles, the Breitling MedCup 2006.

Now there’s another design challenge on the drawing board, as Vrolijk, his team, Peter de Ridder and Mean Machine prepare to build a new piece of team history together. A compact expert team has been brought together which boasts names such as Judel/Vrolijk & co engineering gmbh in charge of design and the design team coordination, Dirk Kramers & Steve Koopman SDK on structural engineering, and Michael Richelsen overlooking CFD/VPP and tank testing support.

The 2008/09 Volvo Ocean Race will bring this Dutch dream-team together yet again. Peter de Ridder knows they’ve made the right choices: “Rolf is a very talented and gifted designer who is still very much engaged with and committed to the projects he’s running. With such a talented designer with such a good team of people around him such as Dirk Kramers and Michel Richelsen, I don’t see any reason at all why we can’t go on to build a potential winner”.

Meanwhile, Rolf is very hopeful about this latest challenge: “This is a great challenge for our design team. We have been involved in several round the world projects in the past with a great deal of success such as Philips Innovator, Equity and Law, Brunel Synergy, and Bank von Bremen. This is the most professional approach I’ve seen so far and that’s what’s so attractive to us. It’s clear to us that without an outstanding sailing team and expert organization you are never going to win this race.”

For more information on the team, click here www.mean-machine.nl