Volvo Ocean Race – Time for a little perspective

by Dongfeng Race Team on 11 Jun 2015 Volvo Ocean Race – Despite the smiles on the crew’s faces, hearts sunk as the team arrived last into Lorient this morning. Early on this leg Dongfeng Race Team made a mistake, a small mistake that would cost them a shot at the overall title of the race and put their podium position at risk.

They say that a bad leg isn’t so bad if you know where you went wrong and maybe the crew will take comfort in that, but for now it’s up to Charles and the team to embrace the pain that comes with losing this chance and shift their focus to what has become an intense battle between four boats for two podium positions.

“Is it better to have almost won and lost it or is it better to have never come within reach so when the disappointment comes, it doesn’t hit you quite so hard? It’s a tough one. I don’t know.” – Charles Caudrelier

In an athlete’s eyes, every race is about winning or losing. Right at the beginning of this campaign Bruno Dubois struggled to find sailors and a skipper who would put that impulse to one side and truly embrace the core objective of this campaign, which was not to win, it wasn’t even to gain a podium position overall. Our mission was to teach and train Chinese sailors, take a first step in the right direction to bring offshore sailing to China and if we could, change a few perceptions along the way.

When this campaign became competitive it was more than we expected. Back in October it wasn’t a problem if we didn’t get a podium position on the legs. If we could prove that we could contend with the best… that was all that mattered.

Then things changed. The team began to exceed expectations and before we knew it, first place overall was within our reach. It would be unfair to say that the long-term mission of the team was forgotten, but it was certainly overrun by the idea that we could and (potentially would) win.

Then on leg five everything changed. Breaking the mast will still remain the most heart-breaking moment of this race for our team and ever since it has felt like we’ve been playing catch up (rather well if you take our Newport win into consideration, but catch up nonetheless).

It’s hard for us to say to Charles and the boys “It’s okay, you took on a challenge that no one else did. You achieved things that no one else could. You have proven yourselves in ways that have never been seen on this race before…” because they’re athletes and to have come so close is almost too much to bear right now. We could tell them what we think, but it would most likely fall on empty ears.

So with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing holding an unassailable lead over the rest of the fleet it’s a now a four-way battle to be on the podium behind them in Gothenburg. Of course there is Brunel who also had a disappointing fifth into Lorient to chase for second place – Dongfeng needs to beat them by three places even though they are two points ahead because they have a far superior score on the tie-breaker In Port Series. Then there is an ever-improving Mapfre, just two points behind, and just one point ahead on the tiebreaker InPorts. Alvimedica are only four points adrift, and with both SCA and Vestas clearly competitive for this final ‘short’ leg, there is plenty of room for a four-point gap between any of these teams.

So it is all to play for for these four teams – it will probably be tense right until the end!

Even though it’s a disappointing result here in Lorient, and it’s our own fault, we just need to try and drag our memories back for a little perspective, to the time that fighting for a podium result overall would have been the dream.