#VOR - Dongfeng Race Team was able to fend off a late charge by Vestas 11th Hour Racing and Team Brunel to secure a second-place finish on Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town to Melbourne on Christmas Day.
It’s the second consecutive second place finish for skipper Charles Caudrelier’s team and this one will be bittersweet. The team led for much of this hard Southern Ocean leg and were disappointed to see MAPFRE make a pass to take the win.
But with just one day left to the finish, Dongfeng suffered damage to its keel system and Caudrelier was suddenly looking over his shoulder at Vestas 11th Hour Racing and Team Brunel.
“I hope we can hold on, I think we deserve second place,” Caudrelier said yesterday.
At one point, the Vestas squad posted in second place on distance to finish, but with his boat fixed and the wind returning, Caudrelier and his crew were able to lock down second place and an important 12 points on this double point scoring leg.
“This was the toughest leg I’ve ever done,” Caudrelier said. “We had this big fight with MAPFRE for most of the race and then a big problem on board just before the finish. A crazy section of gybing around the ice limits, it was a very, very difficult leg.
“We’re a bit disappointed after leading 80 per-cent of the time to give first place to MAPFRE, but there are more legs to come and we will do better.
“They have a small advantage in terms of points and we know they don’t make many mistakes… So each point is important.”
The second place finish will move Dongfeng Race Team up to second place on the overall leaderboard, equal on points with third-place finishers Vestas 11th Hour Racing.
Just after crossing the finishing line, Vestas team director and co-skipper Mark Towill acknowledged the scale of the achievement.
“It was a tough leg. We’re happy to be on the podium again. It’s great to be in on Christmas and I know we’re all looking forward to getting ashore. It was a difficult leg, hard on the bodies, but everyone has held up well.”
At one point, with about 36 hours to go, the race tracker showed nothing to choose between Vestas and Dongfeng in terms of distance to finish. But in reality, the tactical situation favoured the Chinese/French boat.
“It was looking pretty close for a little while, but they were always ahead,” Towill said. “They were always comfortable. Brunel sailed well too so credit to them. It was challenging conditions and we’re all happy to be here and in one piece.”
For Team Brunel, this is a second consecutive mid-fleet finish. Skipper Bouwe Bekking knows it keeps his team in touch with leaders, but time is running out to make a charge for the podium on the overall leaderboard.
“It’s been a really hard leg. We always expected it would be tough and it lived up to that,” Bekking said. “Plenty of breeze and some awesome sailing as well.
“We don’t have any big issues. We could start for Leg 4 in 10 minutes! The boat has done incredibly well.”
Bekking also revealed that Annie Lush, injured earlier in the leg, has been taking light shifts on deck over the past couple of days — great news about one of the toughest sailors in the fleet.
Also worth noting is that Team Brunel posted the best 24-hour run so far on this leg, at 538.1 nautical miles, for an average speed of 22.4 knots. And that happened just yesterday.
“We had an excellent day on board Team Brunel in many ways,” Bekking wrote in his daily email on Sunday morning (24 December). “Not enough to overtake Vestas, but we haven't given up, we know strange things can happen…”
And that may well be his philosophy the rest of the way. Don’t give up; keep the pressure on, strange things can happen.
That means three boats will remain at sea for Christmas, with Sung Hung Kai/Scallywag battling to the end with Turn the Tide on Plastic for fifth place. Their ETA is currently around 4am Irish time/UTC on St Stephen’s Day.
Team AkzoNobel, with over 550 nautical miles to go at this point, isn’t expected to finish in Melbourne before 8am Irish time/UTC on Wednesday 27 December.
Leg 3 Provisional Results, Sunday 24 December at 11:30pm Irish time:
- MAPFRE - Finished 16:07.21 UTC (14 days, 4 hours, 7 minutes, 21 seconds)
- Dongfeng Race Team - Finished – 20:10:16 UTC (14 days, 8 hours, 10 minutes, 16 seconds)
- Vestas 11th Hour Racing - Finished 21:52:11 UTC (14 days, 9 hours, 52 minutes, 11 seconds)
- Team Brunel -- FINISHED – 23:36:27 UTC (14 days, 11 hours , 36 minutes, 27 seconds)
- Team AkzoNobel - RACING
- Turn the Tide on Plastic - RACING
- Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag - RACING
Current Leaderboard:
- MAPFRE - FINISHED - 29 points (after Leg 3)
- Dongfeng Race Team - FINISHED - 23 points (after Leg 3)
- Vestas 11th Hour Racing - FINISHED - 23 points (after Leg 3)
- Team Brunel - FINISHED - 14 points (after Leg 3)
- Team AkzoNobel - RACING - 7 points (after Leg 2)
- Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag - RACING - 5 points (after Leg 2)
- Turn the Tide on Plastic - RACING - 2 points (after Leg 2)
