China's Dongfeng Race Team has taken off the shore of Lorient, France here on Tuesday to head for the ninth and final leg of the 2014-2015 Volvo Ocean Race towards Gothenburg, Sweden.
Starting at 1700 local time, the nine on-board crew members of Dongfeng, now sitting on the third position in the total rankings, will vie for a podium finish after nearly nine months sailing in their virgin season of the most famous off-shore all-around-the-world race.
"It's the final leg. It's very important because you have to fight to stay on the podium or come back to the last place. It's the most important leg of the race maybe," said Dongfeng skipper Charles Caudrelier.
"For most of the time (legs) we finished on the podium. I think we've proved that we can do it. Also we've won two legs, and I think if the colleagues are doing well, we'll win (this time)," added the Frenchman.
Four boats, out of a total of seven, are still competing for the second and third places with just six points separating Team Brunel (27 points) from Dongfeng (29), MAPFRE (31) and Alvimedica (33), while Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing has already secured the overall trophy.
According to Dongfeng's navigator Pascal Bidegorry, the final leg, a 960-nautical mile stretch between Lorient to Gothenburg via a 24-hour pit stop in The Hague, could be tricky.
"Do we follow the English or the French shoreline once past the tip of Brittany? There are exclusion zones to round too, that raises some more questions," said Bidegorry, one of the six Frenchmen on board for the final leg.
"We've made all the Traffic Separation Schemes exclusion zones," explains Race Director Jack Lloyd. "We now have 17 exclusion zones from Lorient to Gothenburg."
"It does restrict the leg a little bit, but with the wind direction we have, it would only add hours and not days," he added.
Two Chinese, "Horace" Chen Jinhao, 23, and "Wolf" Yang Jiru, 24, who were among crew members for the first leg, have gotten on board for the final leg as the whole team is expecting high for a happy ending.
"I'll give all out. That's for sure," said Wolf. "But I'm feeling more relaxed than ever since we're not trying to win but to be the best of ourselves."
"Eighteen months ago when we started training as a team, the Chinese sailors had never spent one night at sea, and now they become great sailors. I think they did fantastic job. I'm very proud of them," commented Caudrelier.
Estimated time of arrival in The Hague is Thursday evening to Friday morning before the crews sail out of The Hague in the same order and timing that they sailed in, with the first boat resuming racing at 1200 local time on June 20.
