Young Sailors go one better than their ‘elder brothers’ January 11, 2006: Break neck speeds, hurtling down waves and several tons of water flying down the deck seem to be commonplace amongst the Volvo Ocean Race fleet but record runs have so far been reserved for Mike Sanderson and his crew on ABN AMRO ONE. Today ABN AMRO TWO confirmed their position as serious contenders in this race by breaking the world speed record clocking up 558 miles in a 24 hour period.*

Stealing the record from their sister ship, ABN AMRO TWO have shown that they have come a long way since their selection over a year ago when 6 of them were chosen from a world wide competition. Coupled with breaking the record, the crew of ABN AMRO TWO also has cause to
celebrate as they passed the first scoring gate of this leg in second
place adding 3 points to their tally. This is a stark change of
fortunes from Fernando de Noronha when they were denied second place and fell to fourth just before the scoring gate. They are now second on the overall leader board.

Speaking from onboard ABN AMRO TWO after they had heard they had broken the record, navigator Simon Fisher said: “We realized we were in with a chance earlier today and then as each sked came in we realized we were looking better and better. We woke up all the guys to tell them - this is huge for all of us and we are stoked. We were then all waiting on tenter hooks to see if we would make it so we are all ecstatic when the final sked came through. It is still pretty windy out here; it is wet and wild on deck. At an average of 23 knots we only 3 people on deck - one person driving with a fire helmet as you have so much spray on you, the other 2 guys are wearing motor cross goggles, trimming and grinding.

Down below is pretty uncomfortable - using the toilet and getting
dressed is pretty hard - the comfiest place you can be is in your bed!!

We are all delighted about the last 24 hours - getting the record and
clocking the points at the scoring gate but after a small celebration we have to get on with this - the other guys around us are still going pretty fast and we need to keep this boat together.”

On hearing the news, Mike Sanderson was first to send his
congratulations: “What a fantastic effort guys… You deserve this, we have got your new record at 558 already, and I am sure it will go up. From all of us here on ABN AMRO ONE, we are so excited for you guys and another massive day for the Team. I hope all the shore team take a lot of enjoyment out of this as well as I know the whole team have worked there hearts out for days like this…

Normally it would be a sad day to have to hand something like this over, but we are genuinely very excited for you guys. Massive effort, our greatest Congratulations to everyone.

From Mike, Stan, Betty and the Guys
P.S.. haven’t we taught you to respect your elders better then
that…!!!

* All records subject to ratification by the WSSRC

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