Volvo Ocean Race- Dongfeng breaks topmast 240nm from Cape Horn

by Sail-World.com NZL on 30 Mar 2015 Volvo Ocean Race has confirmed that Dongfeng Race Team broke its topmast early on Monday (GMT, March 30) but fortunately nobody has been injured and there is no immediate danger to the crew.

The incident happened 240 nautical miles west of Cape Horn at 0315 UTC on Monday, in the final hours of the night onboard Dongfeng.

The crew reported that the mast broke above the third spreader. They are not planning to continue racing on this leg and are heading towards Ushuaia, Argentina, under their own sail.



Reached via Inmarsat, a disappointed Caudrelier said “I’m gutted. As you’ve seen from the position reports we have been on purpose backed off a bit, not attacking in any way. The mast broke without warning, in about 30 knots of wind. We are unable to sail safely on starboard tack, but we are able to make reasonable speed on port tack. We will head towards Ushuaia and assess our options for getting to Itajai'

The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) is aware of the situation and is on standby to help if necessary.

Volvo Ocean Race says they are in constant contact with skipper Charles Caudrelier and are establishing the full extent of the damage to ensure we give him the support he needs to deal with the situation.

Further information will be published when it becomes available.



The last report from on board Dongfeng on March 29 reads:

That's it, we made what should be the final gybe this morning, and we are heading straight for Cape Horn. Straight line? Yes and no.

Because we are sailing a great circle route, that makes a nice curve on the chart. Its about 1000 miles (720 as I’m writing this) that we expect to cover in less than 48 hours to get to the legendary rock.

“Good teamwork. We lost a few miles but we’ve gained in confidence,” says Martin Stromberg.

It was a busy day with some damage to one of the mainsail batten cars [this is what the mainsail slides up and down the famous mast track on] that meant we had to take the mainsail down to repair.



An efficient manoeuvre, with limited miles lost to Alvimedica and the rest of the fleet. Impressive in fact to realise we could manage to keep a very respectable speed without the mainsail. We even touched 27 knots down one surf!

The crew and the boat are now in perfect condition to attack this final chunk of Southern Ocean.

At the time of writing, its a very dark night outside. We’ve just changed the headsail. At 56 degrees South, at 22 knots of boatspeed in 28 knots of true wind, without being able to see anything at all.

Earlier shots from Dongfeng - to view these images in full screen, just click on an image and a slideshow will start. Press ESC to exit.