Training up the Chinese

Skipper Charles Caudrelier tells us of the Dongfeng Race Team Volvo Ocean Race campaign

With the largest population in the world, China is one nation the Volvo Ocean Race would very much like to ‘capture’. So following the Green Dragon and Team Sanya campaigns, for this year’s race there is a dedicated Chinese entry which aims to get more Chinese sailors into the race than ever previously achieved.

Dongfeng is one of China’s top three car manufacturers and a substantial part of its business is joint venture deals with foreign manufacturers. It is no coincidence that the sponsorship of a Volvo Ocean Race team followed the agreement in early 2013 between Dongfeng and Volvo to form a medium to heavy truck manufacturing joint venture in China, owned 55% by Dongfeng Motor and 45% by Volvo.

Dongfeng’s Volvo Ocean Race campaign is run by OC Group – their first foray into the fully crewed round the world race following several Vendee Globe campaigns and round the world records, although personally it is a race CEO Mark Turner remembers fondly from his lap aboard British Defender in 1989/90. The latest campaign is managed on a day to day basis by another former Whitbread competitor, Bruno Dubois, better known for being boss of North Sails France.

Training up China

Unlike other Volvo Ocean Race teams where the sole remit is to win, Dongfeng is first and foremost about training up Chinese sailors, with the competition being secondary. Because of this when the Dongfeng crew list was finally announced last week, it featured four-five Chinese sailors among the crew.

Five months ago French ace Charles Caudrelier, a former Solitaire du Figaro winner and a key part of Frank Cammas’ Volvo Ocean Race winning Groupama crew, was brought on board as skipper. As the time Caudrelier was looking for the budget for an IMOCA/Vendee Globe campaign, but hadn’t found the money.

“I couldn’t refuse this opportunity,” Caudrelier says of his latest appointment. “And I enjoyed my last Volvo. For sure it was in the best conditions with Groupama: In France, with a skipper I know very well and with all the money and everything we needed. And we won the race. For sure, you cannot do a better campaign than the last one. But this is a nice challenge.”

While Caudrelier hasn’t been involved with the Dongfeng campaign since the outset, he joined after the squad of Chinese sailors has been whittled down to 12 and their new VO65 had been shipped to their training base in Sanya.

“With the 12 Chinese guys, we sailed with them on the VO65 for two months, each day with six on board,” he recalls. “Then we selected six guys and went offshore for 17 days. Then some of them decided to stop, so we took some other ones. Now we five sailors left. The goal is to sail with three or four Chinese on board at any one time during the race.”

The Chinese sailors are Jin Hao Chen (Horace), Lui Ming (Leo), Jiru Yang (Wolf) and Cheng Ying Kit (Kit), plus an additional sailor who is also in their shore team.

Caudrelier admits that seasickness among the Chinese was an issue, but points out their first offshore – which originally was supposed to have finished in Auckland – ended up being a prolonged slog upwind into 30 knots and had to be curtailed. “That was hard and some of the crew stopped just because of that. But others managed to get over that and on the second trip, again we met some tough conditions, but it was reaching and they were okay. They were very happy about that! It is difficult - some of them had never sailed offshore and they are coming straight into the Volvo – there are easier ways to start sailing offshore than the Volvo Ocean Race!”

Caudrelier contemplates how it is in the west, where sailors such as himself cut their teeth on smaller circuits, gain experience and build relationships and eventually, after many, many years, get to do the Volvo Ocean Race as the pinnacle of their career. In comparison the Chinese crew are being handed the opportunity on a plate…provided they are man enough for the task. And the challenge is not merely about getting from A to B racing the boat, but fitting into a team, being away from home for a prolonged period and travelling all over the world. “They really want to do it and they are there for the challenge and some say ‘if I don’t do it, I will regret it for the rest of my life’. It is a fantastic opportunity for them.”

Unlike some of the newcomers in for example Oman Sail, all Dongfeng’s Chinese crew has some sailing background be it in the Olympic Games, America’s Cup (with China Team), Extreme 40s or they’ve sailed out of Hong Kong with one of the big campaigns there. However Caudrelier acknowledges that none has done much offshore racing.

Among those they have chosen are some genuine prospects for the future, he believes. “Some of the guys are incredible and I think will be among the first Chinese skippers. At the moment they are young, only 20-22 years old, but they have a lot of talent. When I saw their progress in a just few months and their motivation, they learn very quickly, they are very clever, very hard workers - which is good for us.”

One issue is language so among the coaching the Chinese are receiving, such as the required medical and sea survival courses, has included English lessons. As Caudrelier points out: “If you do the Volvo, you have to speak English, and this is maybe why the French people have so many problems to sail outside of France. So I explained to the Chinese, that if you want to play the game you have to read the rules, which are in English. They understood that very well.”

Non-Chinese

In addition to the Chinese, Caudrelier last week announced the rest of his crew. This includes two of his ex-Groupama colleagues – Thomas Rouxell and Swede Martin Stromberg, plus three others French mates, including ex-Banque Populaire boffin Kevin Escoffier, former Figaro sailor Eric Péron and one of the most interesting appointments, former ORMA 60 and maxi-trimaran skipper Pascal Bidegorry, who will be navigator. Caudrelier previously raced with Bidegorry doublehanded in the Figaro class and then with him on the Banque Populaire ORMA 60 and 40m maxi-multihull and also did his Route du Rhum routing.

“A problem is that we haven’t had a lot of time. We started six months ago and we only started sailing three months ago. It is different to building a campaign in one and a half years,” he says, comparing Dongfeng to his previously pampered existence at Groupama. “Team building is very important in the Volvo and you can’t do team building in two or three months with people who have never sailed together. It is very complicated to win the respect and get the guys to trust you. I saw that with Franck [Cammas]. He is one of the best sailors, but some of the guys who didn’t know him - it took them a long time before they really realised how good he is. On the first leg when we made a mistake in the routing, they were thinking ‘oh, we’ll never win the Volvo against the best Kiwis and Americans’.”

Another significant issue for Caudrelier, is that already the VO65 is shorthanded with just eight crew, but will be more so on Dongfeng because the Chinese sailors they have chosen may have talent, but they simply lack the comparatively vast experience of the other crew. “We know the level of these guys will be good, but they won’t be at the same level as the other teams. If we are sailing with three Chinese, and there are only five non-Chinese only, we can’t have specialist bowmen, trimmers, drivers, etc.” Referring back to his comments about the Groupama crew, he adds: “I chose a lot of French sailors, because I know them, but also because I know they have good experience. For me that was important, because these guys have to be able to do everything.”

The non-Chinese sailors were also not just picked for their racing ability, but also for their aptitude to teach the Chinese. Some sailors weren’t appropriate because they lacked the patience, or simply couldn’t accept the handicap that teaching the Chinese, while racing, would inevitably cause. But this is vital to the campaing, for as Caudrelier points out – the aim within three or four races time is for a full Chinese crew to be able to be competitive without western assistance.

“Dongfeng really wants to develop sailing in China and they want sailing to become popular and we are trying to help them. That is not just important for Dongfeng, it is important for Volvo, for every team in the Volvo Ocean Race, and in fact making a sponsor like Dongfeng happy is important for the whole sailing community worldwide.” One can only imagine the prospects if China gains a broader appetite for yacht racing sponsorship.

For this reason Chinese personnel are not limited to the sailing team – they are dotted around every department within the Dongfeng team. In addition to the five sailors, one of whom is on the shore crew, another is permanent shore crew, one Chinese girl is in the media team, and two others work in the Dongfeng team’s logistics and sponsor departments. Caudrelier estimates they have nine or ten Chinese and 12 non-Chinese across the team.

Media crewman

A further issue which they must resolve soon is over the media crewman. In fact this is a problem across the teams with the organisers on this occasion attempting to supply people in this role.

Caudrelier says they have attempted to find a Chinese media crewman who can communicate the race to the valuable Chinese audience, however everyone they have tried has never sailed before. Which has been a problem. “Right now we have two solutions. We have Yann Riou, who was on board reporter on Groupama, meanwhile we are trying to slowly to build up a Chinese guy to do the job on some legs.”

At present the Dongfeng VO65 is back in Europe at the team’s base in Lorient where she is undergoing a refit. This follows the shipping of the boat from China to the US and the crew then carrying out a transatlantic crossing for training. Conditions for this were brisk. “It was a good test for us: There were two low pressures which we went around. We saw 45 knots in the first for 10 hours just after leaving Newport and in the second one we sailed in 25-35 knots for two or three days...”

VO70 v VO65

So following his experience on the Groupama VO70, how does the new VO65 compare when the going gets tough? “It is good in big conditions. It is safe, which is a good thing. It goes straight and it doesn’t make any mistakes – we didn’t push it 100%, but we would have been comfortable to, because it is a one design and has been built strongly. We feel comfortable in these conditions.”

Saying this the boat does have two tonnes less in the bulb and isn’t the high stability beast the VO70 was. “For sure it is 10 tonnes metre less stable, but it also has less sail area, and it is a smaller boat and it is still the same stability as an IMOCA 60, so you can push the boat. It is different,” Caudrelier continues. “You reduce the sail faster than on a VO70 for sure. You have less sail area and less power, you go slower, so it is safer. You have less stability, so you cannot push as hard, but that is not a problem. You just use less sail area, which is not a bad thing.” And one thing in particular it will improve is safety, which can be no bad thing.

As to the one design element of the VO65, he admits that this hasn’t been easy for the team, but nor has it for Volvo. “It is the first time, so everybody must work together and that is what every team is doing. One of my concerns is that with one designs you always try to go to the limit of the rule and that is our goal, but we agree to respect the rule and hope that everyone else respects the one design aspect.”

This time around Caudrelier reckons it will be relatively easy to do this, but for next time around (the VO65s are expected to have a two race lifespan), when those involved have had a chance to work out the little tweaks they are permitted to do within the limit of the rule, it will be harder.

Program

From here Dongfeng remains in Lorient until the end of July before going to Cowes for Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week and will compete in the Artemis Challenge and the Sevenstar Round Britain Race. Then they will head directly down to Alicante.

As to their competition in the round the world race, Caudrelier observes: “It is very difficult to compare to previous Volvos - maybe the last one wasn’t the best example - often in the past after the first leg you know who is going to win because they had the best boat. Here everyone has the same boat.”

He acknowledges there are some logical favourites, including Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, which is a third campaign for Ian Walker. “They have the same skipper and some very good sailors, very experienced.”

Team SCA he points out is the only team to have put on a ‘winning’ campaign typical of of the past: “They have sailed with the old boat and they have done two boat testing, which was forbidden, but they have found a way to do that. In the rule you cannot do two boat testing, but the definition of a boat is a ‘VO65’ and a VO70 is not a boat. I have no problem with that, but I don’t think that was Volvo’s idea…”

Team SCA has been using the Puma VO70, which initially was the team's crew training platform. Since their VO65 has come on line, they have been lining it up against the VO70, which has been ‘detuned’ (by not canting its keel fully for example) so that its performance is comparable with the 65. “It is interesting for motivation and calibration and crossovers where you can see a lot of things with two boats, which it is impossible to do with the numbers,” says Caudrelier. “Team SCA has run a very nice campaign with very experienced people and they’ve had the time. But the one element where I think they have a big advantage is that they can sail with 11 sailors, which is crazy because we are only eight. For the skipper and the navigator it will be a huge difference, because they will sleep well and they can be off watch, whereas I have to be on watch. And the girls are very strong. So I think they have a lot of advantages. For me on paper they are the favourite.”

Beyond these two Caudrelier acknowledges the skill of Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez with Pedro Campos’ campaign and the experience of Bouwe Bekking with the Dutch. Alvimedica he admits he knows very little about. “They are not the favourite and I don’t know who is in the team.

“For us, it is also complicated with the Chinese. We aim to win, but we are realistic that we are not the favourite. I think we have a good crew and a good team and we have the same boat. If we are not the best in Alicante, our goal is to be the best by the end. And the Chinese will improve. But we have less pressure. The goal for the sponsor is not to be at the back of the fleet. Compared to the others we have to teach the Chinese and after that we have to perform.”