About the boat

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s yacht ‘Saga Insurance’ is one of the fastest classes of monohull racing yachts for single-handed sailors.

An IMOCA (International Monohull Open Classes Association) Open 60 racing yacht, ‘Saga Insurance’ class boats are built in carbon fibre using the latest hi-tech structures, and designed to be as light as possible, for speed, but strong enough to withstand the worst the seas can throw at them.

‘Saga Insurance’ is a Finot-design yacht launched in 1997, and has a proud heritage and extremely successful track record. Formerly known as ‘Fila’ and skippered by Giovanni Soldini, previous honours include Soldini taking first place in the 1998-99 Around Alone race, now known as the Velux 5 Oceans.

While preparing for Sir Robin’s entry to the Velux 5 Oceans race a small team, including the man himself, completely overhauled ‘Saga Insurance’.

The keel and rigging were replaced, along with brand new sails and a Volvo engine. New instruments supplied by Raymarine were also fitted, and a state-of-the-art satellite communications system was set up to allow the shore team, and Sir Robin’s worldwide audience, to closely follow his voyage via emails, photographs, satellite phone interviews and video footage.

Open 60 racing yachts are designed to be sailed alone and creature comforts onboard are minimal, in favour of reducing weight and increasing speed. They have keels which ‘cant’ to the windward side and water ballast to compensate for the lack of weight of other crew members to drive the boat forwards.

On board, the skipper is fully occupied driving the boat, constantly changing and adjusting the sails and autopilot, repairing equipment and sails and putting in crucial ‘brain time’ interpreting weather data at the navigation work-station between 10-minute snatches of sleep. This is the boat's nerve system, packed with electronics and computer equipment to help navigate, monitor race performance, and communicate with race management.

The boats have a variety of different sails to suit various conditions; not as many fully crewed race yachts, but enough to keep the solo skipper working hard to match the sail plan to wind and sea conditions for maximum speed. There are three types of sails: a mainsail, headsails on furlers (rolled up around the stays) and a spinnaker which flies from the bowsprit.

Built for top speed and performance, the boats have tight safety rules governed by the IMOCA class association, which require the boat to right without the assistance of waves by the skipper taking some action to turn the boat over.

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