Volvo Ocean Race: Keel problem and water ingress: Dongfeng crew must fight

For a few days, it had looked as if the Spanish team Mapfre would gain mile after mile on Charles Caudrelier's French-Chinese Dongfeng Race Team after taking the lead last Wednesday thanks to better positioning and faster sailing. Today it became clear why Caudrelier's crew had fallen further and further behind: a serious problem with the keel suspension and water ingress caused anxious hours on board the Christmassy red and white Volvo 65. The crew has now brought the problem under control with an emergency repair and is currently sailing towards its destination at the best possible speed. But the worries do not end there. Will everything hold until the stage port of Melbourne, which is still around 400 nautical miles away on the evening of 23 December? How quickly will the damage on land be permanently repaired? And how will it work within the framework of the stricter rules for the short pit stop?

No more than two shore crew members may work on the boat in a pit stop harbour. In theory, no spare parts may be used. The starting signal for the fourth leg from Melbourne to Hong Kong will be given on 2 January. The two members of the Dongfeng Race Team's shore crew, who are likely to be carefully selected and technically very experienced, will therefore have to work together with the sailors to get the boat ready for the upcoming 6,000 nautical mile Pacific journey within eight days. The port fitting of the keel mechanism, which is cracked at its attachment to the boat, must be checked and repaired. The system has also leaked hydraulic oil. Foreshipman Jack Boutell explained: "We're not quite sure how this happened. We think it's because the hull kept hitting the waves hard. A lot of water got in and filled most of the boat. And we lost oil from the system. So the keel was bouncing around. There was nothing to hold it in place."

The overview and the prospects for the eagerly awaited final sprint. The leading boats are expected to reach Melbourne on Christmas Eve

For the Dongfeng Race Team, it is the first major technical problem in the current 13th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. "We can only hope that our losses don't cost us second place. So, let's get going, because I think we deserve this second place," said Caudrelier combatively on the day before Christmas Eve. For the French, Christmas - as in Germany - begins for many people on 24 December with going to church and the usually cheerful réveillon (Christmas dinner). Presents are usually not unwrapped until 25 December. In the case of Charles Caudrelier and his team, it is more likely to be the boat, which they will "unwrap" according to all the rules of the art of boatbuilding.

According to the latest calculations on Saturday evening, it looked as if Mapfre would reach Melbourne before midnight on Christmas Eve, while Dongfeng would only arrive after midnight in the early hours of Christmas Day. The last few hours of the stage promise to be very exciting, as the chasers have recently come up strongly on a significantly different course. Vestas 11th Hour Racing was only around 13 nautical miles behind Dongfeng after re-emerging from "invisible" stealth mode. A further 15 nautical miles behind, Bouwe Bekking's Team Brunel sailed towards the finish harbour and Christmas on land at just under 24 knots as the fastest boat in the leading group. Vestas and Brunel had turned north from the Southern Ocean much later and were sailing towards Melbourne with better winds. Will that be enough for an attack?

Click here for the live tracker, which is constantly updated on the last stretch to the finish.