Dongfeng Race Team partners with UBOX for Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

• NEWS
• 02 Dec, 2016 09:35:00 AM

Dongfeng Race Team partners with UBOX for Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

Charles Caudrelier and some potential crew members of the new Dongfeng Race Team that will contest the 2017/18 Volvo Ocean Race is to compete in this year's Rolex Sydney Hobart classic in partnership with China's UBOX sailing project.

Less than a month ago Dongfeng Race Team, which will be 100% backed by Dongfeng Motor Cooperation, announced its participation in the VOR for the second time.

Caudrelier, who skippered the Dongfeng Race Team entry in the last VOR to third place overall, has been in Sydney for the past week training for the Sydney Hobart with a mixed Chinese and French crew on the Cookson 50 UBOX.

The boat is owned by the leading Chinese offshore sailor and chief executive of UBOX – the Chinese vending machine business – Wang Bin who is expected to join the boat for the 72nd edition of the Hobart which sets sail on Boxing Day.

On board this week have been Caudrelier and his VOR navigator Pascal Bidégorry, plus Thomas Rouxel and Jiru Jang – aka Wolf who, like Rouxel, sailed in the last VOR. In addition there are several potential new recruits to the team plus eight Chinese UBOX sailors.

Caudrelier says the tie-up with the UBOX project - a team with whom he and Bidégorry competed in the Rolex China Sea Race earlier this year – is part of Dongfeng Race Team's mission to help grow the sport of offshore ocean racing in China and the Sydney Hobart is a perfect warm-up race for the VOR.

"It is great to train together and it's one of our goals to help develop offshore sailing in China," Caudrelier said.

"The Volvo itself is one part of that, but there is a limit to the number of Chinese sailors we can take on our race crew so this project, and the Sydney Hobart, is a great way to help more young Chinese sailors learn the ropes."

The crew has been out on the water every day this week and will complete an overnight passage from its base at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia at Rushcutters Bay on Sydney Harbour.

"It's been fantastic, quite breezy, but not too bad and the perfect way for us to 'learn' the boat," Caudrelier said.

This will be Caudrelier's first Sydney Hobart and the former Solitaire du Figaro winner is well aware of its fearsome reputation. "I have never done it – this will be my first time and I hope it will be the last," quipped the French skipper.

"It looks like a hard upwind race with strong winds and cold conditions, but we will sail some of this course in the Volvo – albeit in the opposite direction - so it is good to practice it," he added.

Wang Bin fell in love with sailing when he was invited to take part in a race in Hong Kong in 2003 and has since skippered the first Chinese yacht to complete a circumnavigation. He is delighted with the partnership with Dongfeng Race Team, and believes it is an historical moment for the Chinese sailing world.

"The cooperation between UBOX and Dongfeng Race Team is a joint training process," he said.

"It not only shows our support of Dongfeng Race Team but also offers an opportunity for my sailors to learn from Charles's crew. Perhaps next year, our team can take part in an international race. All in all, this is a meaningful cooperation, so I am willing to do it."

Dongfeng Race Team media