Team Dongfeng countdown the last days before the Start of the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15

Team Dongfeng (Photo by © Benoit Stichelbaut / Dongfeng Race Team)

With our hearts in our mouths we countdown the days until Charles Caudrelier and his men are suited and booted ready for the start day of the Volvo Ocean Race.

Ready to take on some of the best sailors our generation has ever seen.

Even though the one-design has put a lot of emphasis on the sailors and their performance we feel that the power and the elegance of the Volvo Ocean 65 shouldn’t go unnoticed. It’s now 11 days to go before this beautifully crafted machine does what it was built to do. Race

See the team and their Bio HERE

This is the moment the team have been working towards for 10 months now. “Getting to the start line has been a journey in itself,” said Team Director, Bruno Dubois. “But I couldn’t be prouder, we have come together as a team despite the challenges and I have seen strength of characters I never expected. But now, for us all, the real adventure begins!”

Skipper Charles Caudrelier and Swedish sailor, Martin Strömberg are the only two sailors on board Dongfeng to have done the race before. “For all of the guys except me and Martin, this is new,” explains Charles. “They do not know this moment so it’s very exciting for them. I remember when this was me three years ago and I will never forget that moment.”

‘Horace’ Jin Hao Chen described the arrival in Alicante as ‘a dream come true’. “I’m very excited, this moment is very important. I’m ready.” Meanwhile his colleague Wolf highlighted the team spirit during the delivery: “It was a relatively easy delivery down to Alicante from Lorient, we spent a lot of time together just laughing and chatting. It was a great time for our team. We’ve been working on this for so long, looking forward to this moment. I didn’t expect this reception though, maybe one or two shore crew but I didn’t expect so many people, this is a perfect moment.”

So without further ado please see below the latest images of ‘Dongfeng’ ahead of the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15.