The team of professionals sailing ABN AMRO ONE, with Mike Sanderson (NZL) in charge, remained focussed and foot perfect throughout the whole of this, the longest leg of the Volvo Ocean Race at 6,700 nautical miles.

They drifted across the finish line today in Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro at 00:18:23 local time (03:18:23 GMT) after 20 days, one hour, 48 minutes and 3 seconds at sea to claim first place. The team collected 3.5 points for passing the Cape Horn scoring gate first, and seven points for the leg win, bringing their total now to 49 points and putting them solidly at the top of the overall scoreboard.

An ecstatic but tired skipper, Mike Sanderson reached the dock and said:

“It was a really tough leg, but it was amazing, the guys did a fantastic job. It was unbelievable and I’d thank the whole team.

“It was a very stressful leg and the leg that I was most worried about. It was really hard work mentally, but it was exhilarating, it was fast and we reached some great speeds. It was like taking a 49er across the Atlantic, it was really full on and it was just a question of hard you could get away with pushing boat.

Navigator Stan Honey, the man that Sanderson says it is an honour to work with, said,

“This leg is the essence of the race. It takes you half way round the world and past Cape Horn and it is one of the reasons why I am taking part. The other reasons are to sail round the world and to sail with these guys.”

The last stages of this leg have predominantly featured light airs, something for which this Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed yacht is not optimised and it has given Mike Sanderson his fair share of worries as he watched his lead decrease and increase with the fickle and unstable breeze.

Although this team has consistently been at the top of pack for most of this leg, they made a bold tactical decision to take a short term loss to make a long term gain and, late on day two, they gybed to the south of the fleet, losing 43 nautical miles and moving from first place to fifth. This was the day when they also encountered a six foot giant squid which attached itself to their windward rudder but was eventually untangled.

Life was very stressful onboard for the next two days as the tactic of going south rather than opting for a more northerly route with their sister ship ABN AMRO TWO played out. But within 24 hours of making the decision, they moved up into fourth place and reported high speeds and flat water.

By 1000 GMT on day four, ABN AMRO ONE was back in her familiar first position but quickly slipped to third as the fleet split when they headed north to round the two ice gates which kept the fleet the fleet north of iceberg territory.

Day five, 23 February, ended with the black boat in second place just behind movistar but by day six they had grappled their way back into the lead and really didn’t look back from then.

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