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" THE ROUND-THE-GLOBE VOLVO OCEAN RACE pits the world&amp;#039;s most advanced sailboats against the world&amp;#039;s worst weather -- gale-force storms, mountainous seas and sweltering doldrums. The seven Volvo Open 70s (70-ft. racing sloops) preparing to start the 32,000-mile, nine-leg rally from Spain on Nov. 5 make up the fastest class of monohulls ever built. In Apri 2005, a VO70 sailed a record 530 miles in 24 hours, topping out at 39 knots. For the 11-man crews, speed has risks. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s like being on a runaway train -- you never know what&amp;#039;s in front of you,&amp;quot; says Peter Merrington, a watch captain the last time the race was run, in 2001. &amp;quot;You just hope nothing breaks.&amp;quot; Click here for a Web-only interview with former racers Peter Merrington and Katie Pettibone. 1 -- Instruments Masthead pod measures wind speed and direction. LCDs on the mast and on deck display the data. Navigators watch wind, course and boat speed on a wireless tablet PC. 2 -- Sails Kevlar yarns laminated onto Mylar films save weight by placing fibers only along paths of stress. Sails are strong enough to hold shape under load -- and endure months of sunlight, salt spray and mechanical abuse. Full sail area can produce up to 400 hp. 3 -- Rigging Kevlar and PBO (polybenzoxazole) stays supporting the mast are 200 pounds lighter than steel stays. Sail control lines use low-stretch Spectra, Vectran, Kevlar and PBO cores to handle loads over 10,000 pounds -- equal to hoisting two Hummer H3s on one 5/8-in. line. 4 -- Spars Carbon-fiber mast, boom and bowsprit are shaped to reduce drag and increase strength. Every pound at the top of the 100-ft. mast requires an extra 10 pounds of keel bulb weight (see &amp;quot;&amp;quot;) to keep the boat upright. 5 -- Deck Safety hood prevents 30-knot rivers of seawater from flooding hatches. At night and in storms, on-deck crew wears harnesses tethered to attachment points spread around the boat. 6 -- Communications 64Kbps voice and data satellite links download weather data, which computers combine with GPS, compass and instrument feeds to plot the fastest course. It&amp;#039;s rarely a straight line: Boats have unique performance characteristics, and weather changes, so routes cover more miles, but at higher speeds. 7 -- Twin wheels The helmsman can stand outboard for visibility and a second driver can &amp;quot;ride shotgun&amp;quot; (assist on the spare wheel) in storms. 8 -- Cameras Seven fixed cameras and a wearable head-cam wirelessly transmit a rolling 2-minute video loop to hard drives. Red &amp;quot;panic buttons&amp;quot; on deck save the footage to be uploaded via satellite for TV and Web coverage. 9 -- Crash box Watertight bulkhead 8 ft. behind the bow prevents catastrophic flooding in case of a collision with an iceberg, a whale or one of thousands of shipping containers lost at sea. 10 -- Hull Carbon-fiber, epoxy and Nomex honeycomb core form a hull half the weight of a similar fiberglass hull, yet twice as strong. Thin bow slices through chop; wide, flat stern helps planing. 11 -- Retractable daggerboards Prevent leeway (sideslipping) by providing lateral force (lift) when keel is canted. Bright orange color increases visibility in the event of a capsize.  BELOW DECK An aft trim ballast tank (12) helps the boat surf by gulping up to 315 gal. (2600 pounds) of seawater, which raises the bow out of a stormy sea. &amp;quot;You can push the boat hard without doing a nose dive,&amp;quot; Merrington says. Accommodations below deck are spartan: 10 berths (13), galley (kitchen) (14) with a gas stove and a sink, head (toilet) (15), and navigation and media stations (16). The crew shares the leftover 400 sq. ft. of space with wet sails, engine and retractable drive unit (17), fuel tank, water tanks, generator, batteries, and keel and daggerboard hydraulics (18). Instead of the fixed, lead fin found on most sailboats, VO70s use a 10,000-pound lead bulb at the end of a 14-ft. blade, to counteract heel -- the boat&amp;#039;s tendency to tip over. Hydraulic rams can cant the keel up to 40 degrees from vertical, doubling the effect of the bulb, keeping the boat level, and conserving wind energy otherwise lost off the top of the sail. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s like driving a Porsche compared to a truck,&amp;quot; says Katie Pettibone, a watch captain during the 2001 race. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a282/1681731/>