For the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race, the organizing authority made a dramatic shift in direction for the next two editions of the race opting to move to a smaller, less expensive yacht built to exceptionally strict one design standards. This paper outlines some of the motivations for this shift and details some of the critical features of the new Volvo Ocean 65 design and how they compare to solutions on the previous Volvo Open 70 yachts. Discussion of the logistical complexities involved in building the fleet of boats in the required time is also discussed. A review of the structural design is included to illustrate the efforts to improve construction efficiency, reduce cost and dramatically improve robustness of the yacht structures while minimizing the weight additions that result. Finally we review some of the extensive quality control procedures and manufacturing technology that has been employed in an effort to achieve a fleet of one design yachts that are as identical as possible.

This paper is a survey of the current state of the art of open source software for yacht design applications. Yacht design and design tools we use have undergone numerous transformations in recent decades, the most notable being the introduction of the personal computer. Since the advent of the PC, yacht designers have been forced to create their own programs from scratch or choosing from relatively few off-the-shelf programs. Commercial software has been characterized by high expense, closed systems, and limited interoperability between applications that are difficult to fully customize or use in a collaborative manner. A lot of sneaker-netting and custom conversion code is often required. For the last several years, users in many industries have been given a new option of joining the “open source movement,” where software and the underlying code is made available for users to download, modify, improve and again make available to others. With open source, the isolated approach to custom software development can be replaced with a broad base of core capability that can be extended and shared with the larger community. Industry players collaborate on the essential elements of tools for our profession - as the saying goes, "A rising tide will lift all boats." There is still plenty of room for individuals or companies to differentiate themselves by how they use the tools and by their niche areas of expertise or experience, but the return on investing in an 'open source' set of common tools is potentially greater than its cost. In doing so, software tools are developed and improved in a collaborative manner, resulting in shorter development time and applications that are more powerful, robust and interoperable for all users. Although working in a closed environment may feel safe and secure to private actors, the lack of adequate peer review and external contribution leads to situation specific myopia. In this paper, we will survey available open source tools both general and yacht design specific that can be used, present some suggestions on integrating them into the design process and explore how the industry can improve these tools in the future.