Like everyone else in my local Laser Frostbite Fleet 413, for a few hours every Sunday during the miserably frigid Newport, Rhode Island, winter I escape the house and savor a few hours of me time.

For the 2014-2015 Volvo Ocean Race, which began at its home port in Alicante, Spain, on Oct. 11, 2014, and ended June 27, 2015, in Gothenburg, Sweden, all seven competing 65-class sailboats were built ...