NEWPORT, R.I. — The Chinese team in the Volvo Ocean Race could not have performed worse during a trial run in September, less than a month before the actual race began.
With France’s top ocean racers training the crew, the Dongfeng Race Team watched a $15,000 sail slide overboard and a Chinese crew member cling to a halyard as he met the same fate, the line shredding his palms, only to be rescued along with the sail.
“The French guys were getting loads of grief,” said Mark Turner, one of the Chinese team’s managers, at a stopover here last week.