Volvo Ocean Race - Slow going for Dongfeng Race Team

by Yann Riou, Dongfeng Race Team OBR on 22 Nov 2014 Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15. Yann Riou reports from Dongfeng Race Team as the crew are halfway through day two.

Quote of the moment: 'We are not King of the road right now' from Dongfeng’s skipper, frustrated with their boat speed. Looks alright to us though!

Boat speed: 23 knots (3-hourly average speed over ground - which means they are surfing at significantly higher peak speeds). This is 43 km per hour average for the landlubbers, faster than most commutes!

Position in fleet: Third in ranking, but top five boats at least are all together, with Alvimedica holding on to a small five miles over Mapfre and Dongfeng.

Distance to finish: a very long way (4700 nautical miles) – the boats are currently 250 miles south east of South Africa, and 1000 miles south west of Madagascar.

What happens next? Whilst the fleet charges east propelled by strong 25-35 knot south westerly winds, all the Navigators and looking ahead as to when make the gybe north, and now they will cross the trough of low pressure blocking their access to the steadier south east trade winds that lead back up to the Equator. The distances to go on ranking will mean nothing until this gybe is executed and the boats head more towards the goal.

Looks simple from our trackers no?

Well it doesn’t look slow, or particular complicated from the comfort of our beds, desks and behind our screens checking the Volvo Ocean Race Tracker. But onboard Dongfeng, there is both frustration at their performance (even if looks good from where we are sitting!), and life onboard in the fast and furious downwind conditions they are in is anything but simple.

Since quite a few hours now, we can’t work out how to go faster, even to go the same speed as the others. It was the same thing for part of yesterday, and we can’t work it out. And now we’re in the Agulhas current. Wind against tide, a very messy sea state. Very uncomfortable conditions, although we are used to this. The night was a bit complicated, we took some water onboard due to a hatch on deck not being completely closed, that probably lost us a mile. We’re trying to get it back, but we can’t!

And from Yann Riou, our onboard reporter

'Living at 23 knots' [of boat speed]

'Acceleration, brutal stop, heel from one side and then to the other suddenly. Life at 23 knots is stressful. When you are on deck, you manage to understand partly what is, and what is about, to happen. But inside the boat, it’s impossible to anticipate the movement of Dongfeng. During the night I wanted to make myself something to eat. I poured the yoghurt powder in to my bowl. At this precise moment the boat stopped suddenly as it plowed in to a wave. I had to let the bowl go and hold on to whatever I could to avoid becoming part of the forward bulkhead [the carbon fibre ‘structural wall’ in front of the galley area]. The bowl for its part though flew through the air, making sure it spread the powder everywhere it could on its way. Result : 15 minutes of cleaning, whilst carefully balancing myself. Annoyed, and the start of a weight watchers diet…' Dongfeng Race Team Website