Dock Talk: Dongfeng Race Team’s mid-Atlantic near miss with a whale

 

ALICANTE, Spain, June 5 (Volvo Ocean Race) – Dongfeng Race Team’s Chinese rookies came face to face in the mid-Atlantic with a whale in a taste of the kind of larger-than-life experience the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 will throw at them.

They have already sailed through a storm, faced up to 40 knots of wind and French skipper Charles Caudrelier says he has navigated “one of the darkest nights I’ve known with absolutely no moon at all and barely any visibility”.

He continued: “We had the scariest experience to date during the night when we came so close to hitting a whale, so close we could hear it breathing.

“You can smell whales in the air but in the pitch black you can’t tell where they are. You can’t sense them in the water because very often when whales are at the surface it’s because they’re sleeping so it’s a nasty surprise for both the whale and us!

“I just held my breath knowing how close we were to potential danger but, thankfully, we didn’t hit it – we just had a near miss.”

Volvo Ocean Race / SCA Cross the Atlantic: Check

Cory Silken / Team SCA

Sam Davies is walking down the dock in Newport when a group of three school girls come running up seeking her autograph. Team SCA just sailed across the Atlantic but Davies obliges willingly, much to the girls' delight. “My daughter is a huge fan of Sam’s,” says one father. “She has posters of her on her walls.”

The Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 made its first official stop in Newport, Rhode Island, on Wednesday evening when Team SCA, the all-female crew, glided into town.

Family, friends and race fans were on shore and on the water, cheering on the crew that had just completed a 13-day passage from Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.

“It’s an impressive welcome, especially because it’s just a training leg, not a race leg,” said Sam Davies, the Person in Charge. “We have a few Americans onboard and we knew their families were going to be here. And because Newport is part of the race it’s pretty nice to have the first Volvo Ocean 65 in town.”

“It was cool watching the stealthy silhouette coming in,” said Quintin Ciszek, the 31-year-old brother of crewmember Sophie. “I’ve only known this campaign through photos and blogs, but this is very impressive. The gravity of what they’re preparing for hits home when you see it all.”

Volvo Ocean Race | Why Capey keeps coming back

It’s so hot inside I’m sweating over the chart table. No more clean clothes, little freeze-dried food left. Only 30 minutes of sleep last night. And the nine of us, tucked in that boat together. The wind is too light, too strong, or in the wrong direction. You would be grumpy too if you were doing this for the sixth time, right?  More; Volvo Ocean Race | Why Capey keeps coming back

Volvo Ocean Race | Cammas on Caudrelier – different styles, same objective

Franck Cammas bucks the trend of top class ocean racers who tend to be built on the very massive side. But the little Frenchman still ranks as one of the toughest around, a man whose word is law on any boat he choses to skipper. Ask him about Charles Caudrelier, though, and he immediately breaks into a broad smile.

When we caught up with the man who won the last Volvo Ocean Race at his first attempt, exhausted and unshaven he looked like he’d rather be tucked up in his bunk than answering our questions after a day of hot competition in the Extreme Sailing Series in Oman.

Talk about his fellow Frenchman Caudrelier, the newly appointed skipper of Dongfeng Race Team, though, and suddenly the defences fall away. You can barely haul him off the subject.

“Ah, Charles,” he beamed. “Charles is a very easy guy in a group. There’s never a problem with Charles.”

Team Alvimedica see their new Volvo Ocean 65 hit the water / VolvoOcean Race

Southampton, UK - Team Alvimedica launched their new Volvo Ocean 65 boat on Friday in Southampton to herald six months of crew selections and hard training before the start of the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 in October.

 

On the dock was Race CEO Knut Frostad who has fostered the dreams of two young Americans, Mark Towill and Charlie Enright, to launch a boat in offshore sailing’s toughest round-the-world professional event.

“This is a proud moment,” said Frostad. “Mark and Charlie remind me of me when I was their age – they have no fear and are just so hungry to compete in this race.

“They have overcome many, many barriers to reach this point having found the ideal sponsor for them but now, in lots of ways, the hard work is just starting.”

Volvo Ocean Race | It’s a family affair

31 Mar 2014, sisters and SCA crew members Elodie and Justine Mettraux train together in

Puerto Calero, Lanzarote - Spain.

Their strong-minded looks match, they speak with a similar Swiss accent and sail the same pink boat. Justine and Elodie-Jane share a family name, too. The Mettraux girls are about to do a Volvo Ocean Race with Team SCA. Meet the first sisters the race has ever seen.

It’s September 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland. Elodie-Jane and Justine Mettraux are exercising together – both sisters grew up sailing with their dad on the Leman Lake nearby before becoming professional sailors.

Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 | From studio to cardio

What happens when you throw a TV and radio man into training for the toughest of sailing races? Tom Bushell is finding out the hard way as the Onboard Reporter for Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing.

When we asked Tom Bushell to give us a behind the scenes peek into his life as an Onboard Reporter we weren’t really sure what we would get.

Here at Volvo Ocean Race HQ in Alicante we know Tom as a bubbly, fun guy, as well as a top professional reporter with a background in radio and television – however we wondered whether he’d still be the same energetic dude after a few months of hardcore training with an elite sailing team.

Luckily they obviously make ‘em tough in Tom’s hometown of Whitley Bay in England, and we needn’t have worried. As Tom’s video report shows, he’s still in high spirits and loving the greatest adventure of his life so far. Probably going to need a bit more work on that rowing machine though Tom!

SCARED OF THE VOLVO OCEAN RACE… / Dongfeng Race Team

Fear of the unknown is one thing and being scared of what you know is another! For Kit, Horace, Wolf and Liu Xue, Liu Ming and Yiran Zhang, the Chinese sailors on board ‘Dongfeng’, they have had their first real taste of what the Volvo Ocean Race can be like and it is scaring the hell out of them.

After 12 days at sea on the training leg from Sanya and with more rough conditions ahead, the Chinese crew relayed their fears to skipper Charles Caudrelier: “They are scared about the bad weather and afraid to be sea sick again,” reported Charles. “It is hard to realise from the outside and for someone who never sailed offshore, they have to understand there are going to be not easy moments… We will sail through a storm just before arriving in Hong Kong in the next few days. For sure they are not ready technically and physically to face such weather. But, honestly, it is totally normal. I went through the same thing when I started sailing offshore and my first transatlantic experience was not great… I almost gave up at that time.”

Volvo Ocean Race | A reluctant hero

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand - Delta Lloyd - Brasil 1 / Volvo Ocean Race

In my world, you qualify as a champion the minute you sail the Volvo Ocean Race. So if you’re getting ready for your sixth race, you are a sailing hero, a proper legend, one of those names written on yacht club walls. But Chuny, the Spaniard who joined Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing on Thursday, he disagreed. I argued the point. I don’t think he bought it.

Extremely talented“There aren’t many other people in the world I want to be on the water with.” My colleague Nick Bice sailed with Roberto Bermúdez de Castro in 2008-09 – the Spanish sailor was Delta Lloyd’s skipper. “Chuny has a fantastic respect for the elements; he is an extremely talented sailor and he gets the most out of any team.”

Now that’s quite a compliment. Chuny – a nickname his sister gave him as a kid – just signed with Abu Dhabi for 2014-15. It will be his sixth participation in the Volvo Ocean Race, making him the Spanish sailor with the most appearances in the race. But he sweeps that away.

More; Volvo Ocean Race | A reluctant hero

By Agathe Armand

CHINESE SAILORS FINDING THEIR SEA LEGS / Volvo Ocean Race

  

Last week Charles Caudrelier chose six Academy Squad sailors to sail with him towards Auckland for the first training leg of the project allowing them to make the transition from Academy Squad to Race Squad. They are now well into their first week at sea and it has been a bruising start for the novice offshore Chinese sailors who are learning first-hand about ‘Life at the Extreme’! Parallel to this adventure, back in Sanya the remaining Academy Squad sailors have been fighting their way to the top of the Hainan Regatta leader board.

The Volvo Ocean 65 ‘Dongfeng’ left Sanya Serenity Marina on Saturday, 22nd March their 5,200+ nautical mile journey a re-enactment of Leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race. “It’s exciting being part of Dongfeng Race Team, you just don’t feel alone anymore and for us, even though we are in competition with one another we already feel like a large team. Dockside when we left there were a lot of people there to see us off, our sponsor Dongfeng, Serenity Marina, our shore team and media,” said Race Squad sailor Ying Kit Cheng.

ABU DHABI OCEAN RACING NEWS: ‘Chuny’ completes Abu Dhabi crew / VolvoOcean Race

Cascais, Portugal – March 27, 2014 – Spain’s Roberto ‘Chuny” Bermúdez, one of the most experienced and talented sailors in the history of the Volvo Ocean Race, has been recruited by Abu Dhabi to complete their eight-man line-up for the 2014-15 edition starting in October.
 

The 44-year-old will be contesting his sixth race giving him the most appearances in the race by a Spaniard.

He competed as skipper for Delta Lloyd in 2008-09 and was also in the CAMPER team in the last edition in 2011-12 when he famously avoided a whale while steering.

‘Chuny’, as he is universally known in sailing, brings a wealth of experience to skipper Ian Walker’s already talented line-up.

Passion for the Sea -Why I love the race / Volvo Ocean Race

This race is so much more than a sailing event” according to Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad. But what does that mean to a non-sailor like me? I came to the race with no experience of sailing and yet it has completely sucked me into a world of adventure, personalities, and at-the-limits action. I wondered what the hell happened to me - so I asked Knut.



I have an embarrassing confession. I’ve worked for the Volvo Ocean Race for almost two years, and yet I don’t sail. Can’t sail. I get seasick and the only knot I can tie is the one that fastens my shoelaces. Despite this I have fallen in love with this event.

The man sitting opposite me knows a thing or two about sailing. Knut Frostad is the CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race, a former Olympian, and a two-time skipper in this race; a man with a rich history. In short he’s the kind of guy I always want to know more about.

Dongfeng Race Team: Dare to dream / Volvo Ocean Race

Dare to dream…

 

The Training Once Charles Caudrelier was announced as Skipper at the Official Boat Launch he took the lead in training the successful candidates onboard the Volvo Ocean 65. This is a photograph of Jin Hao Chen during a training session just off the coast of Sanya.

 

There are a few hundred professional sailing campaigns active worldwide at any given moment but none quite like Dongfeng Race Team. Not many sponsors and sailing management companies would take the risk of hand picking and training athletes from scratch for a campaign as important as the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 but this is the case for Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle Company Limited and OC Sport. These two companies, from different ends of the business spectrum, have come together to enter the world’s first Chinese team in the Volvo Ocean Race.

Volvo Ocean Race | News flash – Three more crew for Team SCA

Lanzarote, Spain – March 17, 2014 – Dee Caffari, Sara Hastreiter and Elodie-Jane Mettraux have joined Team SCA for the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15.

The first all-female crew in more than a decade, Team SCA have been trailing candidates for the past 18 months. On Monday they confirmed the participation of three Volvo Ocean Race rookies – the experienced Briton Dee Caffari, Sara Hastreiter from America and Elodie-Jane Mettraux from Switzerland, bringing their total squad to 12.

Caffari is 41 and comes from the UK. She is the only woman to have sailed around the world three times non-stop and to have sailed solo around the world in both directions. She has competed in the Vendée Globe, the Global Challenge, the Barcelona World Race and four transatlantic races.

Hastreiter has sailed over 40,000 nautical miles during her career and many leading events in the States and the Caribbean. Coming from South Dakota, she is 29 and one of four under-30 members of the squad.

Also 29, Mettraux is a renowned Swiss sailor who won the amateur ranking in the 2012 Tour de France a la Voile.

Caffari, Hastreiter and Mettraux join Elodie-Jane’s sister Justine Mettraux (SUI), Sally Barkow (USA), Carolijn Brouwer (NED), Sophie Ciszek (AUS), Sam Davies (GBR), Abby Ehler (GBR), Stacey Jackson (AUS), Annie Lush (GBR) and Liz Wardley (AUS). 11 members of the squad will make up the actual race team with the remainder as reserves. More candidates may still be selected in the coming months.

The Wise Wolf / Volvo Ocean Race

This is Ian Walker’s third race and his third time behind the helm. But I’ve never seen the British sailor in such a positive state of mind. Is it because of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s first sail or because of his team? I’m not sure I have the answer, but I know one thing – this time, Walker is ready for a good, happy race. A winning race?

“I feel a change,” says Ian Walker is 44, skipper of two previous Volvo Ocean Race campaigns. One could say he’s seen it all – except for a win. 

He answers my phone call from the bottom of Abu Dhabi’s brand new Volvo Ocean 65, the one-design machine that will take him and his eight crewmates around the world in 2014-15. 

“I’m down below cleaning the bilge to learn about the boat from head to toe, from bow to stern, to make sure we are ready for our trip to our Portuguese training base in Cascais.”

Volvo Ocean Race | How much faster can they go?

The Volvo Ocean 65 is a brand new boat, a one-design class specially built for the next two editions of the race. We did lots of calculations and ran velocity prediction programmes but who knew how fast that boat was really going to be? We wondered – you wondered. Not any more: Team Brunel has just sailed 540 miles in 24 hours between the UK and the Canary Islands last week.

Feike Essink/Team Brunel/Volvo Ocean Race

22 Feb 2014, onboard Team Brunel for its first leg: Southampton - Sanxexo - Lanzarote.

540 nautical miles in 24 hours – that’s 56 miles short of the 596.6nm world record established by the Volvo Open 70 Ericsson 4 in 2008. 540 miles in 24 hours – that’s a speed average of 22.5 knots (42 km/h).

Volvo Ocean Race | Not just a coat of paint

So we’ve talked lots about naval architecture and technical specifications over the past few months. But what you first notice about our Volvo Ocean 65 fleet are the designs on the hulls and sails, right? All boats look different and they all represent something different, too. Here is a look at the symbolism behind the paint job. 

Tom Bushell-ADOR/Rick Tomlinson-SCA/Victor Fraile-DRT

 

The first time Dongfeng Race Team went for a sail after their christening earlier this week in China, a swallow flew straight into the boat, landed on one of the DFCV employees and then hopped into the cabin.

ABU DHABI OCEAN RACING NEWS: Slattery, Fisher, McLean and Harmer jointhe crew

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – February 10, 2014 – Ireland’s Justin Slattery, Australia’s Phil Harmer, Britain’s Simon Fisher and New Zealand’s Andrew McLean have joined Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s crew for the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15. 

Joining Ian Walker’s crew this Monday are four sailors with a combined total of 12 Volvo Ocean Race campaigns between them. 

They join Emirati crewman Adil Khalid, Australian under-23 recruit Luke Parkinson and British onboard reporter Tom Bushell. 

All four have previously raced with Walker, Abu Dhabi’s double Olympic silver medalist skipper. 

Volvo Ocean Race | The day we had to abandon our boat

Andrew Cape has sailed countless thousands of miles with Bouwe Bekking in nearly 20 years but the abandonment of their boat in May 2006 continues to stick in his mind. Now reunited with the Dutch skipper as Team Brunel’s navigator, Cape tells us how leaving movistar behind only made the pair stronger.

Cape and Bekking were sailing on board movistar, a Spanish entry in the then new Volvo Open 70 class, when the keel pivot broke in the Leg 7 from New York City to Portsmouth of the 2005-06 edition of the race.

For an agonising hour or two, Bekking was in two minds about whether to stay on board and try to salvage movistar or accept to quit the Volvo Open 70. After the Dutch skipper received key data from Cape, already his navigator back then, he made the tough call of leaving the boat behind.

Volvo Ocean Race | Fresh news to delight Dutch fans

There are few places where the love of sailing is greater than in The Netherlands. A 24-hour pit-stop in the iconic Dutch port of The Hague is now bringing the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 boats within touching distance of the fans.

Last month, Dutch fans celebrated the entrance of Team Brunel for the 12th edition starting on October 4 this year. They cheered the follow-up revelation that the professional training company Schouten Global are planning their own Dutch campaign in 2017-18.