Leg 6 Day 11: Dongfeng and MAPFRE take big losses in the Doldrums

It all depended on where you entered the Doldrums. The conventional wisdom had it that east was probably going to be best but in the event the two boats to the west have absolutely flown away, leaving the four in the east floundering.

The worst hit over the last 48 hours in this Pacific Doldrums passage have been Dongfeng Race Team and their now ever-present shadow, MAPFRE. The Chinese red and white Volvo Ocean 65 is currently in fifth pace, a yawning 263 miles behind the leader Team AkzoNobel.

That is obviously not great news for the team sponsored by Dongfeng Motor Corporation but it is not all bad for Charles Caudrelier and his multinational male and female crew. And that’s because MAPFRE is still behind them – in fact another 14 miles back.

There is a very long way to go until the finish of this leg from Hong Kong to Auckland, the fabled City of Sails, but if the order at the back – between Dongfeng and MAPFRE – remains the same then Caudrelier will be happy.


But the future looks ever more daunting and complex. At the moment all the trailing four boats are moving quickly on the westerly winds of the Pacific monsoon towards Santa Ana Island in the Solomons, but those winds are set to die as the crews head further into the southern hemisphere.

The question then is what to do with the big area of light winds ahead. Do the navigators risk trying to push south and west or do they go round the outside to the east?

The next few days will be critical to the final outcome of this leg and they also offer big opportunities for the trailing boats to make gains on both AkzoNobel and second-placed Team Sun Hung Kai Scallywag.

The gaps are big but, as before when Dongfeng has slipped back in the ranking, the one thing we can be sure of is that Caudrelier and his team will not be giving up. Far from from it. They have their main rivals for overall honours in this race on their tail and that will be enough to push them to make every opportunity count, with 2,460 nautical miles still left to sail.



Latest position report at 0700 UTC:
1. Team AkzoNobel DTF: 2 197nm
2. Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag DTL: 48,7nm
3. Team Brunel DTL: 145nm
4.Turn the Tide on Plastic. DTL: 207nm
5. Dongfeng Race Team. DTL: 263nm
6. MAPFRE. DTL: 277.3nm
7. Vestas 11th Hour Racing. DNS.