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Fotogalerie Leg 7
17th May 2015
A REALITY CHECK FOR DONGFENG AS LEG 7 BEGINS
Leg 7 is underway, and apart from the Southern Ocean, the 2,800 nautical mile Transatlantic leg from Newport to Lisbon is the toughest the team will face.
The team faced a harsh reality check after finish last in yesterday’s in-port race, bringing them back down to earth after their exciting win into Newport.
The crew of Dongfeng have Team Brunel (4 points behind) and Team Alvimedica and MAPRE (7 points behind) breathing down their necks, hungry for the podium positions.
There’s no way, with such tight racing that any of these teams are letting up so let the battle commence.
Image: A?lex Wang? / Dongf?eng Race? Team
Short, complex and challenging is how we can describe this North Atlantic crossing. Only a year on from when our Chinese sailors did their first ever Atlantic crossing during training from Newport to Europe. “This time I feel more confident when I stand in Newport because we have sailed across Atlantic Ocean last year,” said Wolf. “I now know what to expect and what will happen on this leg especially how cold and difficult it is.” Wolf and Horace may now be feeling more confident with thousands of miles now raced but everyone is expecting this leg to be tough.
“The Chinese sailors were really nervous when we set off for our first transatlantic and now I look at them and see how far they’ve come,” says Caudrelier. “Last time we did this crossing it was tough weather conditions but this time the weather is looking relatively calm for the first few days. I think the start could be the key for this leg, it will be really important to have a good start. The pressure will be on the navigators and how fast we can sail the boat.”
Image cr?edit: Al?ex Wang ?/ Dongfe?ng Race ?Team
As the sailors prepared their final bags in the team base and the shore team began the pack up, we managed to catch up with Team Director, Bruno Dubois amongst the chaos:
“Realistically it’s pretty unlikely that anyone will beat Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing,” he explains. “Even if we achieved the best results we can imagine, Abu Dhabi are likely to be able to hold their podium positions for the next three legs. Except of course if they have a major accident like we did in the Southern Ocean. In that case it would change the game completely. So we can’t give up hope because we know that this could happen. We don’t wish anything like a dismasting upon them but equally you can sail into a floating object in the North Atlantic and break your rudder and lose enough time that could result any team being at the back of the fleet. We must sail like that could happen. Whilst we prefer to look in front of us and not behind we have to recognise that with a third of the race points still available, we have Team Brunel just four points behind us and hungry to take our second place. And equally Alvimedica and MAPFRE are capable of taking our podium spot as well. There is still everything to play for.”
The truth is, yesterday’s in-port race was a harsh reality check for Charles and his crew as they finished last behind Team Brunel. As the race goes on the in-port races are playing a more prominent role. With this scoring system a tie is possible and in the event of a tie the Race Director will refer to the overall winner of the in-port races. Should a tie occur it will be the team who have the least number of points for the in-port races that will gain overall victory. This means that even though technically we are six points behind Abu Dhabi, we would need seven to catch up because Ian Walker and his team sit so far ahead of us in the in-port race scoring.
What lies ahead is essentially a well-known North Atlantic crossing – except that the Lisbon finish complicates it a bit. The Azores High is blocking the way, impacting what would otherwise be a classic and wild ride.
Image cr?edit: Al?ex Wang ?/ Dongfe?ng Race ?Team
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Leg 7 is underway, and apart from the Southern Ocean, the 2,800 nautical mile Transatlantic leg from Newport to Lisbon is the toughest the team will face.
© Alex Wang
LEG 7 DEPARTURE - NEWPORT
It's always chaotic on departure day and we imagine that in each team base the ambiance is different. Today the atmosphere in our base was that of impatience. Impatience to be out there. The boys kept looking at their watches annoyed that time was passing so slowly.
© Alex Wang / Dongfeng Race Team
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