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By just 3 minutes 25 seconds, Dongfeng Race Team arrived in Newport, US on Wednesday night ahead of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing to win the sixth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Charles Caudrelier-skippered Dongfeng finished the leg, from Itajai, Brazil, with an official time of 17 days 9 hours 3 minutes.
Team Brunel arrived third to Rhode Island, roughly 50 minutes behind Azzam, with Mapfre finishing about 35 minutes later in fourth.
As of Thursday morning, Team Alvimedica and Team SCA had yet to arrive.
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing were, at one point earlier on Wednesday, as far as six nautical miles behind Dongfeng, having cut that to just a half nautical mile in the sprint to the finish.
"We were within a couple lengths of getting over them at Block Island – literally three or four boat lengths from rolling them – but they held on and dug deep. Very deserved win," said Azzam skipper Ian Walker of his counterparts.
Block Island, a popular holiday destination off the Rhode Island coast, is 30nm from where the boats came into port in Newport.
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing continued their streak of reaching the podium at the end of each leg – victories to Cape Town and Itajai, runners-up finishes to Sanya, China and Auckland, New Zealand and a third place finish into Abu Dhabi – while Dongfeng snared their second leg victory to cut the ADOR lead down to six points.
Azzam is still the boat to beat with three legs to go – to Lisbon, Lorient and Gothenburg – at 11 points. Dongfeng are second on 17 and then Brunel are third with 21. Points are determined by order of finish, with lower scores being the objective.
The Leg 6 victory to the US was a remarkable feat for Dongfeng, whose onboard desalination device failed just two days into the leg and brought on the prospect of having to retire the leg, as they did in the fifth to Itajai after their mast broke at sea.
The crew, however, were able to repair it, and sail to the win.
“For this leg, the goal was to be ready in Itajai,” Caudrelier said, adding that the shore crew had done “a fantastic job” to have the boat in top condition coming out of Brazil.
“I’d like to give them the victory.
“I’m very proud of them and very happy to take this first place. They worked very hard to get this boat ready.
“I’m really, really happy.”
Of the water worries that nearly doomed the sixth leg for his crew, Caudrelier said:
“We wouldn’t have had to retire, but we would have had to stop and fix it.
“When you stop in this race, you see the difference between the boats, and that means the leg is over because it means you lose at least 12 hours.
“That would have meant another leg where we would have finished last.”
As for Team Brunel, skipper Bouwe Bekking, seemed to concede the final three European legs would be a two-boat race.
“The race is lost for us ... because Abu Dhabi has an inaccessible lead now compared to us. Dongfeng still has a good chance. They sailed an excellent leg, congratulations to them. And to Abu Dhabi too – they both sailed very well.”
The sailors will now rest Stateside until May 17, when they ship off for the last trans-Atlantic leg to Lisbon, Portugal, a 2,800nm journey. The final two legs will see them sail another 647nm to France and then 1,600nm to the finish in Gothenburg, Sweden.
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