Dongfeng Race Team encounter the fierce conditions of the Southern Ocean prior to their withdrawal from the fifth leg. Yann Riou / Getty Images
Dongfeng Race Team encounter the fierce conditions of the Southern Ocean prior to their withdrawal from the fifth leg. Yann Riou / Getty Images

Sport

Dongfeng Race Team take ‘major punch’ as Volvo Ocean Race joint-leaders limp to dry land

Dongfeng Race Team, the joint leaders of the Volvo Ocean Race who broke their mast a day ago, were nursing their stricken boat towards dry land and safety on Tuesday.

Agence France Presse

March 31, 2015

Dongfeng Race Team, the joint leaders of the Volvo Ocean Race who broke their mast a day ago, were nursing their stricken boat towards dry land and safety on Tuesday.

The breakage could hardly have happened at a worse place for the Chinese team, some 250 nautical miles away from Cape Horn in the midst of the treacherous Southern Ocean and in high winds on the fifth leg.

The damage has robbed the 65-foot (20 metres) boat of much of its manoeuvrability and French bowman Kevin Escoffier was forced to cut off one of the sails, to avoid it doing more damage to the 100-foot high (30 metres) mast. He also cut away the top part of the mast.

“After four extraordinary legs for our team, we’ve taken our first major punch. A very big one,” lamented French skipper Charles Caudrelier.

He must now decide whether to try to carry out repairs in Ushuaia, Argentina, which they are scheduled to reach at 1115 GMT on Tuesday, and attempt to rejoin the leg.

Alternatively, they could quit the 6,770-nautical mile (nm) stage and then transport the boat to the next stopover, Itajai in Brazil, for a full mast refit in time for the next leg to Newport, Rhode Island on April 19.

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, who held the joint lead with Dongfeng before the fifth leg start from Auckland on March 18, protected a slim 2.8nm advantage over Turkish-US Team Alvimedica at 1240 (UAE time) on Tuesday.

Spanish boat MAPFRE and Team Brunel of the Netherlands were both within 20nm while the all-women’s crew Team SCA were some 500nm behind having suffered serious sail damage in a storm last week.

The boats are expected to arrive in Itajai between April 5-6.

In all, they will sail 38,739nm and visit 11 ports and every continent with the race concluding in Gothenburg, Sweden, on June 27.

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