Volvo Ocean Race Leg 3 - Bringing the dream home

Dongfeng - Volvo Ocean Race Ainhoa Sanchez/Volvo Ocean Race

Dongfeng Skipper Charles Caudrelier © Charlie Shoemaker / Volvo Ocean Race

Like it or not at this point our beloved Chinese campaign has more pressure than ever before. Just like Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing coming into Abu Dhabi (whether anyone will admit it!) sailing a home leg there is always added pressure. We could easily lie and pretend we don’t feel it, in fact we’re even sure this is what our Skipper would say if you interviewed him, but it would be hiding a simple truth, that China expects a good result on this next leg home. 'We’re about to return to China, where everything started. Honestly, arriving first in Sanya might be better than winning the race overall. It would be fantastic for the project,' says Skipper, Charles Caudrelier.

To date we have managed to tread successfully an extremely thin and difficult line between meeting expectations in terms of results from a Chinese nation and culture which is not impressed by anything much less than winning, and the core mission and need for the future, of a team built today with many relatively inexperienced Chinese members.

Our particular mission has pushed many human boundaries for everyone involved, from the sailors to the shore crew, from assistants to top management, everyone has embraced the highs and the lows of running such a complex but fulfilling campaign. Performing but teaching at the same time.

We have stuck to our promise of training inexperienced Chinese sailors and as we have communicated it has been more challenging than we could have ever anticipated but where others may have perhaps crumbled, we have continued and today Cheng Ying Kit is the fourth Chinese sailor to sail onboard Dongfeng since the race started back in October.

However, with such significant crew changes come significant consequences and one of those we are now facing is that the Dongfeng Race Team are about to sail 4,670 nautical miles with three out of the nine crew who have never raced onboard Dongfeng before. One of these men is our stand-in Onboard Reporter (OBR), Sam Greenfield. Although the OBR is forbidden by the race rules to sail the boat in any way, he perhaps holds an even more important position in taking care of the crew by cooking and cleaning as well as reporting. Due to unforeseen family circumstances Yann Riou, our original Onboard Reporter will sit this leg out.

Pontoon goodbyes for the Chinese Sailors © Alex Wang / Dongfeng Race Team

For those who don’t know much of Chinese culture, winning is a must. To be respected you must be at the front and you must be the best. The reality is, we could do this but the natural conclusion would be to take the Chinese rookies off the boat and where would we be then? Just another western campaign with Chinese money.

We might be a campaign that embraces challenges but it’s going to be harder than ever to deliver. We feel the pressure and we want to win. We’re not going to sit back and pretend otherwise, if another team beats us to China it will be heart-breaking but at the end of the day you only have to look at the competition to see how fierce it is. Team SCA won yesterday’s in-port race so they’ll be heading out of Abu Dhabi with a hunger to win and a strong team spirit. MAPFRE were the clear winners in the first part of the last leg, Brunel constantly seem to be within spiting distance and the list goes on…

The real story that lies ahead is that these Chinese sailors have dreamt about this their whole lives and they are going to bring their dream home to China, to their families and friends and fans.

The real question is: can our famous spirit deliver something extraordinary and leave an unprecedented print in China? Or will the challenges get the better of us?