bc magazine

Yes! Dongfeng on the Podium!

For China, the Volvo Ocean Race, and all those who thought we couldn’t do it. Dongfeng Race Team secured a place on the podium of the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 at their first attempt today in Gothenburg, Sweden – an incredible achievement for Charles Caudrelier and his Chinese backed team.

However this podium finish reaches further than just the realms of the team. It touches the Chinese sponsors Dongfeng Trucks, Aeolus Tyres and the city of Shiyan, who took the risk of financially backing the campaign, for whom sponsorship and sailing were completely new just last year. It is a huge reward for the professional sailors and shore team who embraced the project knowing that it was not labelled a ‘winning’ campaign. And finally, it touches the journalists, family, friends, fans and everyone else who believed in us and supported us on our journey.

Winning comes in many forms, we didn’t take the trophy home but does that mean we didn’t win? Maybe we didn’t win the Volvo Ocean Race but we won our own challenge.

It’s true that this 12th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race has been epic and unbelievably, after 11 countries, over 41,000 nautical miles, two leg wins, five podium results out of nine, one broken mast and it it all came down to the last few miles. Dongfeng Race Team finished leg 9 in fourth place behind Team Alvimedica, Team Brunel and MAPFRE. The Spanish frustratingly managed to slip in front of Dongfeng a few hundred metres from the line after being covered all the way from The Hague by the Caudrelier-Bidegorry duo. But it was enough for Dongfeng to secure the overall podium place they deserved – Mapfre had to beat Dongfeng by two places to overtake them in the overall standings.

So whilst there was some disappointment on their faces from missing a leg 9 podium after putting so much energy in to these past few days, the overall third place is a great victory for a team for whom a podium finish in Gothenburg was just a distant dream.

“I want to thank Dongfeng and Bruno for giving me this opportunity. A year ago I never would have believed this possible. I have lived the most incredible human story with this team and I am so proud of the progress of the Chinese sailors. Turning Chinese athletes including HongKonger Cheng Ying-kit into professional offshore sailors was challenging but it was worth every second.” – Charles Caudrelier.

In most people’s mind the concept of winning is an absolute. Technically, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing has won this race, and we congratulate them, they were there the favourites, they delivered, and they deserved it. They got first place, they held an unassailable lead coming in to Gothenburg and they will take the trophy home. So what does this tell us? Well, we know they were the ‘race favourites’ and as Charles said “It’s hard to be the race favourites and even harder to maintain that image. They’ve done a great job.”

But for Dongfeng Race Team it has been a different story. Hardly race favourites, from day one this Chinese campaign has faced adversity and sometimes it’s been draining, both physically and emotionally. It’s a given that if we had a dollar for every tear, drop of sweat and laughter over the last nine months, we would be millionaires today.

As a campaign we wanted to reignite offshore sailing in China. We wanted to build a campaign the Chinese people could take ownership of, something they were proud of. We wanted to inspire a new generation of sailors and we had a mission to teach and train young Chinese sailors, take a first step in the right direction to bring offshore sailing to China and if we could, leave a Volvo Ocean Race legacy.

“There is still a long way to go but I know from the reaction back home this project has been great for offshore sailing in China,” says Yang Jiru (Wolf). “I hope it will inspire young Chinese sailors for years to come. Eighteen months of this life with this team has taught me a lot. Besides offshore sailing it has taught me how to deal with situations and emotions I would have never otherwise faced.”

This team defied the odds, and ultimately became a team that could win – if not this time, then in the future…

This time though – Charles Caudrelier, Chen Jin Hao (Horace), Pascal Bidégorry, Yang Jiru (Wolf), Thomas Rouxel, Liu Xue (Black), Eric Peron, Cheng Ying Kit, Yann Riou, Sam Greenfield, Kevin Escoffier, Liu Ming (Leo) and Kong Chencheng – and the whole team – be proud.

From Broken Mast to First Place, Dongfeng Win Leg 6 of The Volvo Ocean Race

Dongfeng’s American dream became a reality just after dark local time, winning leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race in Newport, USA, beating their arch rivals Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing by just 3 minutes and 25 seconds after 19 days of racing.

Skipper Charles Caudrelier immediately dedicated this leg win to his shore team: “I would like to dedicate this victory to the shore team. It started in Ushuaia with the shore crew, when first they delivered the boat to Itajai and then fixed the boat and put in a new mast in less than one week. They worked so hard to have the boat ready – I am very proud of them. Everyone on the boat for this leg did a fantastic job and that was the key to winning, for sure. All the team deserves this victory. All the crew have improved, the Chinese improve, we get stronger and stronger each time. To beat Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing shows we have become a great team.”

In many ways there was more at stake for Dongfeng – Abu Dhabi were going to be happy with a 2nd in terms of overall points. But for Dongfeng the energy gained from the comeback was worth more than just the points of victory.

The leg from Itajai, Brazil to Newport, USA has been by no means straightforward. A broken water maker 24 hours into the leg nearly threatened the team’s hopes and dreams, but the indefatigable Kevin Escoffier (Mr Fixit) managed to make a repair that lasted. Then it was head back into the race and by day 7, the Chinese team were in the lead with 3,364nm to go: “It was a complicated leg, we had a big advantage in speed sometimes, not easy to make the right tactical decisions all the time, so speed was so important. We had something like 10 lead changes. We gained slowly a small advance but every time the other guys came back. Abu Dhabi sailed very well – we made a mistake one or two nights ago – we were 10 miles ahead but they got ahead again and we lost a lot. And then they were ahead of us just two or three hours ago when we hit a light spot. It was just crazy but we had a nice fight with them!”

It was always a question mark as to whether Dongfeng could bounce back after being forced to retire from Leg 5 with a broken mast. “I have never seen the gang so focused and intense,” said American Onboard Reporter, Sam Greenfield. “When we won leg 3 into Sanya our lead was comfortable. This time Abu Dhabi was right over our shoulder and breathing down our dry-seals [necks].”

In one of the most intense finishes the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 has ever seen, the identical boats and sheer determination of both teams ensured it was a neck and neck battle lasted right up to the finish line. It was clear that both teams were giving it everything they had with every ounce of energy they had left as they approached the finish.

With only three short legs remaining, and a commanding points lead, the race is Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s to lose. “Now we still have to push hard – this was the first step to come back in the race after the 8 points we got breaking the mast,” said Kevin Escoffier. “We still have three legs to come back on Abu Dhabi and I hope they will do a mistake and we can be better than them. For sure they have not made many but statistically they can. Its not over.”

Source: Dongfeng Race Team, Editing: bc magazine
Photos: © Billie Weiss, Ainhoa Sanchez / Volvo Ocean Race

Dongfeng Finish Second – Volvo Ocean Race leg 1 review

After 25 days of racing just 12 minutes separated first and second place in Leg 1 of the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean race – Ed Gorman reviews the first leg and talks about boatspeed.

In the old days of the Whitbread and the early Volvo Ocean Races boatspeed was the product of two things: the designer’s pen and the ability of a crew to move a hull efficiently through the water in all conditions. The switch to a one-design contest for the first time in this year’s Volvo Ocean Race has effectively removed the designer from the equation. The boats are as near identical as it is possible to be, the sails are the same and so the onus is on the crew.

For the Dongfeng Race Team aboard the bright red Chinese-sponsored Volvo Ocean 65, boatspeed and many other of the key skills that make up a winning campaign were always going to be a struggle. Unlike their rivals Charles Caudrelier’s crew would contain two offshore novices, in the form of Chinese rookie round-the-world sailors Jiru Yang (Wolf) and Chen Jinhao (Horace), and this was expected to have an effect on all aspects of performance, not least the speed of the boat through the water.

But what leg one from Alicante to Cape Town demonstrated was that in this department at least Caudrelier has managed to square the circle because the red boat was consistently among the fastest, if not the fastest in the fleet especially off the wind when sheets were eased. The Chinese yacht was on the pace upwind but downwind she had an edge, something the crew demonstrated in straight line contests against leg winner Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing at one stage and against third placed Team Brunel.

How could this be? The answer in Caudrelier’s mind is the fact that he and several other members of his crew have big experience in solo ocean racing. Both Caudrelier and his navigator Pascal Bidegorry have won the true test in this field – the Solitaire du Figaro – and others in the crew have completed many miles at sea in solo or double-handed races. In the Solitaire you test yourself as a solo skipper against 49 other sailors in identical boats – something the Volvo Ocean Race is now asking of its crews for the first time. It is second nature for men like Caudrelier and Bidegorry to push hard for an extra tenth of a knot, to trim to perfection to squeeze out that little bit extra which, over an extended run, can lead to taking a chunk out of the boat in front or establishing a lead. What is more they are used to doing this short-handed.

Here is Caudrelier reflecting on where that speed comes from, a couple of hours after finishing in a spectacular second place into Cape Town, just 12 minutes and four seconds behind Ian Walker’s Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing after 25 days at sea.

“It can change with every leg and I don’t want to over-do this or get ahead of ourselves, but with Bruno Dubois – the team director – we chose our crew very carefully,” said Caudrelier. “On Dongfeng I have, in my view, one of the best trimmer-drivers I know in Pascal Bidegorry, and I have some exceptional drivers like Thomas Rouxel who comes from the Olympics. These guys are very, very good drivers and trimmers and they are used to fighting for speed.

“I think, from my analysis of the last Volvo Ocean Race, the game used to be about having the best boat and, if you had it, you were going fast and you didn‘t have to fight to go faster. But in a big class of one-design yachts you need to trim the sails and drive to find the speed and maybe that is why we are strong.”

Clearly another potential weakness in the Dongfeng crew might have been in manoeuvres that have to be slick at this level. But in this area the Chinese sailors have learnt fast. The pattern that developed was that in the early stages of the leg during the battle to get out of the Mediterranean in close company with other boats, the Dongfeng team struggled a bit with transitions and sail changes. But as the race settled down and the breeze stabilized in the Trade Winds, there was less to do on this score and less potential impact on performance. Even so, Cauderlier still required all eight of his team on deck for any major manoeuvre.

The Chinese sailor, Wolf, has no doubt that sail changes on Dongfeng improved as the leg went on. “It was really hard in the first three days, we were sailing close to each other and we had to push our boat. We could never sleep properly and I never got more than two hours sleep in one go so I was really tired. But once we got out of the channel (Straits of Gibralter) the wind was quite consistent, so it got better. I think we are doing better and better with our manoeuvres and sail changes.”

One knock-on effect that Caudrelier had to manage was the impact on himself and Bidegorry of needing to be on deck regularly plus the extra demands on the more experienced members of the crew over four weeks at sea. Again the more settled conditions in the second half of the leg helped offset any negative impact this might have had.

For Caudrelier and Bidegorry there were several key tactical moments. The collision when they were leading that snapped off one of the rudders more or less left them no option but to sail through the Cape Verde islands and then they lost out big-time in the Doldrums, ending up neither firmly east or west and stuck in the middle going slowly. But sparkling boatspeed in the breeze helped them recover from fourth place back into contention for the podium in the second half of the leg. The big plus-point was the decision to gybe more east than their rivals to get round the bottom of the South Atlantic High that set Dongfeng up for a fast run into Cape Town. Caudrelier believed they could win the leg right to the end. “I think we lost the race the night before we finished when we gybed,” he said. “We should have stayed inside Abu Dhabi – we gybed a bit late.”

With a big ocean leg under his belt on Dongfeng, he now knows more about how to get the best out of the new Volvo Ocean 65 boats but he says they are tricky. “They are very difficult to sail because they have less power than the Volvo 70s (used in the last race). They heel more, they are heavy and they need more sail area, so you have to find the right balance between angle of heel, sail area and power which is not easy.”

Wolf will now take a rest, handing his place to another Chinese sailor before returning for the leg three, from Abu Dhabi to Sanya. “For me I am really happy that we won second place – I am happy about that,” he said. “Only now I am a bit upset because we were so close to being champion on this leg, but that is life. You cannot expect everything that you want to happen.”

Caudrelier had nothing but praise for his path-breaking Chinese crew members. “They showed that they are prepared to work really hard and they were always there when we needed power on the winches. They are very good guys with a good spirit and they never complained,” he said.

Leg 1 Alicante to Cape Town: (6,487nm, although many more miles raced)
Finish position: 2nd, behind leg winner and pre-race favourites Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing
Time of finish: 15:22:48 UTC (12m 4s behind leg winner Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing)
Duration of leg: 25d 3h 22m
Distance sailed: 8,363nm
Best 24 hour run: Dongfeng 541nm at 1440 UTC 3.11.14 (provisional)

Volvo Ocean Race websites: www.volvooceanrace.com www.dongfengraceteam.cn

Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15

The 12th edition of the Volvo Ocean race starts on 11 October from Spain and 7 teams will race 38,789 miles around the globe over 9 months. Over the 40 year history of the race, it’s seen amazing feats of sailing and the current race is sure to be no exception. what unique about the 2014 is the new one-design boat, and the amazing access we the public will have to see what’s going on on-board at anytime during the race. As each boat has 5 fixed cameras and an on-board reporter offering live video feeds and images 24-7.

The race is broken into legs and in the 2014-15 race there will be nine of them, with the boats crossing four oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans) and visiting 11 countries in five continents: Spain, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, China, New Zealand, Brazil, United States, Portugal, France, The Netherlands and Sweden. The China stop is at Sanya and is scheduled for 23-31 January, 2015.

Among the seven teams is an female team and the first ‘Chinese’ entry in the race’s history. The Dongfeng Race Team is a team with little experience that as well as looking to win hopes to raise the profile of sailing and off-shore racing on the mainland. You can follow the team here www.dongfengraceteam.cn

The main website for the race is www.volvooceanrace.com where the plethora of information and images can be accessed.