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China's Dongfeng team won 6th leg of Volvo Ocean Race

Xinhua, May 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

China's Dongfeng Race Team won the sixth leg of the prestigious Volvo Ocean Race on Thursday traveling from Itajai, Brazil to Newport, Rhode Island, United States.

Just 39 days ago, the boat was in the middle of the Southern Ocean with its mast broken.

And on Thursday at 02:03:00 UTC, the team triumphed which made their skipper Charles Caudrelier feel blissful.

"I'd like to give our shore crew this victory," the Frenchman told the official website reporter.H "The goal for this leg was to be ready in Itajai and the shore crew did a fantastic job. They worked very hard to get this boat ready. I'm very proud of them and very happy to take this first place.

"I'm really, really happy. I'm very proud of my team."

It's been a weary, over 5,000 nautical miles long leg. A leg "with a tactical decision to make every day," says Caudrelier. A leg they started by breaking their water maker to finally take the lead on May 2 and never let it go.

"10 times we gained slowly, and every time the guys came back in a cloud or something like that. We weren't very lucky. Every time we managed to have a small advance, we lost it!"

And the Frenchman, skipper of a mixed crew including four of his countrymen, two Chinese, a Swede and an American Onboard Reporter - Sam Greenfield, a local, turns to their direct competitor Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing who took second, three minutes behind them.

With this result and after winning Leg 3 in China, Dongfeng (17) closes to within six points of the Emiratis who are overall leaders (11).

"They had a fantastic comeback. They just kept coming back... they passed us a few hours ago but we managed to re-pass them. It was terrible," he said. Endi