Classes
The class is the main focus of IMOCA. As the names imply, this class is "open", meaning that it does not represent fixed boat designs; instead, they are defined by a "box rule" which permits any design, as long as it meets certain restrictions. The restrictions limit the lengths of the boats and place certain safety requirements on the boats, such as minimum stability requirements. This class is recognised by the International Sailing Federation.
Boats are typically light and high-powered, with large sail-plans. Typically consisting of large carbon-fibre shells, there are few concessions to comfort.
Read more about this topic: International Monohull Open Classes Association
Famous quotes containing the word classes:
“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“Of all classes the rich are the most noticed and the least studied.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“Journalists belong in the gutter because that is where the ruling classes throw their guilty secrets.”
—Gerald Priestland (b. 1927)