Two wily old campaigners, Bouwe Bekking and Andrew Cape, picked Dongfeng Race Team’s pocket to edge out the Chinese boat and claim Leg 2 honours for Team Brunel on Saturday morning.
Credit : A Sanchez
The pair have 11 previous Volvo Ocean Races behind them and all that experience told in the final stretch of this 5,200 nautical mile, incident-packed stage from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi.
Charles Caudrelier looked to have secured the advantage for Dongfeng and his mix of experienced French and rookie Chinese sailors.
But Bekking and Cape, who chalk up 103 years between them, had one last card to play and they found some timely wind pressure, apparently from nowhere, to streak past Dongfeng and secure a crucial one-mile advantage.
They never looked liked being caught again and Dongfeng Race Team were once more forced to settle for a narrow second-best, 16 minutes behind Team Brunel after three weeks of tough sailing since the departure in Cape Town on November 19. They had been pipped by 12 minutes by Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing on Leg 1.
The big Dutch skipper, who competed in his first Whitbread Round the World Race back in 1985-86, sported his trademark wide smile as he cruised from the finish line to the dock on a flawless, sun-drenched morning.
"It is a good feeling," he beamed. "I’ve always said, it’s better to be lucky than good but we’ve been good this leg as well so it’s so nice to win this one because it could have been an easy leg to finish last. It’s just really nice to get the scores but the team did a fantastic job, we sailed the boat much better than in the first leg. So that’s the nicest feeling of all.
It was certainly not all plain sailing for the winners, though, in this new era of one-design Volvo Ocean 65 sailing.
"It’s just hard work. In the past you could probably relax a little bit because you had a fast boat but now it’s just full on all the time. When you make a mistake then somebody else gets the advantage.
"That puts the pressure on a lot, especially the young guys. They sometimes can’t really cope when they lose one or two places when the big wind shift comes or a light puff. But they did a tremendous job as well on this leg. It’s been a good one."
Caudrelier, in contrast, tried his best but couldn’t conceal his disappointment in a pre-finish call to Race HQ:
“Brunel have been much faster than us since a few days and we don’t know why. We’re a bit disappointed because we did a good job to pass them, but they keep passing us. You have to do well, but you also have to be fast. If you’re not fast, it’s difficult to win a leg.
“We’re not so happy (about second). We always want to improve, but for sure it’s good news for Dongfeng. We try to do the leg and try to improve it every leg. We showed that we can play the match with the best, and we’re proud of that.”
There was plenty of consolation for Dongfeng. The result, with Leg 1 winners Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing in third, means that they are joint top of the standings after two stages on four points.
Team Brunel and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing rank ahead of them, however, because of leg wins achieved with the Dutch crew ahead because they recorded the most recent victory.
1. Team Brunel finish time: 08:25:20 UTC / Elapsed time: 23d 16h 25m 20s
2. Dongfeng Race Team finish time 08:41:40 UTC / Elapsed time: 23d 16h 41m 40s
From Volvo Ocean Race
