Dongfeng wins dogfight to take Volvo race leg

China’s Dongfeng Race Team won a dogfight with their Abu Dhabi rivals up the US East Coast to claim their second stage in the Volvo Ocean Race.

Skipper Charles Caudrelier took Dongfeng across the line in Newport, Rhode Island late Wednesday just three minutes and 25 seconds clear of Ian Walker’s Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing entry Azzam.

With six legs gone, the Chinese vessel is now just six points behind Azzam in the overall rankings with three stages to go in the round-the-world epic.

Dongfeng has fought back from the critical blow of retiring from the fifth leg with a broken mast. But Caudrelier is now in with a good chance of overall victory.

“Things are going better,” said Caudrelier, who recounted the dramatic finale to the 5,000 nautical mile stage from Itaja in Brazil.

“It was all decided by a breath of wind,” the Frenchman told AFP. “This morning we were seven nautical miles ahead of Azzam. They came back to a tenth of a mile and were even ahead of us for a few seconds. It was a battle until the end.”

“A win like that is a dream,” he added.

Dutch challengers Team Brunel finished third, under an hour behind the leading two, with Spanish boat MAPFRE in fourth. Team Alvimedica (Turkey/U.S.) looked likely to claim fifth ahead of Team SCA (Sweden), the all women’s crew.

Caudrelier paid tribute to his shore crew for setting up the victory, repairing their stricken boat in Itajaí, Brazil, in less than a week before the race to Newport began on April 19.

“For this leg, the goal was to be ready in Itajaí and the (shore) crew did a fantastic job. I’d like to give them the victory,” said Caudrelier.

“I’m very proud of them and very happy to take this first place. They worked very hard to get this boat ready. I’m really, really happy.”

Britain’s Walker said that Caudrelier and his team deserved their win even though Azzam had threatened to overturn their lead as they passed Block Island 30 nautical miles from the finish.

“We were within a couple of lengths of getting over them at Block Island — literally three or four boat lengths from rolling them — but they held on and dug deep. Very well deserved win,” said Walker.

Caudrelier’s hopes of bouncing back for the triumph had looked in serious jeopardy just two days into the leg, when the electronic water-maker, which converts sea water into drinking water, broke down.

He said if his crew had not been able to repair it, they would have had to make a 12-hour stop.

“We wouldn’t have had to retire, but we would have had to stop and fix it. When you stop in this race, you see the difference between the boats, and that means the leg is over because it means you lose at least 12 hours,” said Caudrelier, whose boat finished in 17 days, nine hours and three minutes.

“That would have meant another leg where we would have finished last.”

The boats now have 10 days in dock in Newport for maintenance before starting the transatlantic leg to Lisbon on May 17.

There then follows two legs to France and Sweden before the event concludes on June 27 in Gothenburg at the end of a 38,739 nautical mile race taking in 11 ports on every continent.