Charles Caudrelier and his crew on Dongfeng, sponsored by the Chinese car and truck manufacturer Dongfeng Motor Corporation, recovered from a poor start in the Itajai In-Port Race to finish in third place today.
Racing in light airs in bright sunshine off Itajai, the Chinese team worked hard after losing ground at the start and sailed well upwind and down to finish just over a minute behind race winner, MAPFRE, and just over 20 seconds behind second-placed Team AkzoNobel.
“We did not have the best start but we managed to come back and finish third, so it was not a bad day,” commented Caudrelier afterwards. “There was not much opportunity to come back but we stayed focused and we also used the mistakes of our opponents to come back.”
The on-the water data showed that Dongfeng was the second fastest of the six boats racing in terms of average speed, while the crew put in the most work of all their rivals, with the highest number of tacks and gybes.
The result leaves Dongfeng Race Team in second place overall in the Volvo Ocean Race In-Port series on 39 points, five points behind leader MAPFRE and six points ahead of Team AkzoNobel in third.
The overall ranking in the In-Port Race series will only affect the main race result if there is a tie on points on the main scoreboard. In that eventuality the team ahead on the In-Port series will win.
Although Caudrelier will be disappointed not to have added to Dongfeng’s tally of three In-Port wins, he and and his team will now focus on the start of the next leg to Newport, Rhode Island which starts from Itajai on Sunday.
Dongfeng Race Team currently leads the rankings in the main race by one point from MAPFRE.
