ABN Amro One Win Gruelling Southern Lef
At 03.18 GMT today after 20 days, 01 hour, 48 minutes and 23 seconds ABN AMRO ONE, overall leaders in the Volvo Ocean Race, added a leg four victory to their impressive race record.
The Southern Ocean is notoriously the hardest and most challenging of legs for any round the world sailor – the extreme fatigue coupled with the intense cold, strong winds and large seas makes the arrivals here in Rio even more significant. For ABN AMRO ONE, who have worked hard to maintain their sometimes fragile lead, the finish here in Rio has come not a moment too soon. Mike Sanderson and his crew have now won 3 of the 4 legs in this race and continue to show that they are the team to beat in this race. However with half the points still available there is everything to play for in the remainder of this race and in a fleet that contains some of the world’s best sailors.
As Mike Sanderson commented on the dock side:
“I didn’t think we’d won this leg until this afternoon. That was when I allowed myself to believe that we might have pulled this off. And even in the harbour when at one stage it looked like we were going to swept past the finish by the current there were some pretty nervous times. It was amazing to watch the guys behind - I see there have been a few places changes today.
It’s been tough since we left Wellington, but some amazing sailing. All I can say is the guys did a fantastic job sailing this boat. I’m just so proud of the whole of TEAM ABN AMRO. The boat is immaculate, it never put a foot wrong - it did everything we asked it to do. We looked after it sometimes and then there was a couple of times we put the hammer down and showed a bit of pace, so that was fun.
I’m very excited to be in Rio. This is a pretty big milestone in the Volvo Ocean Race. We’re now roaring back into the Atlantic and there are some pretty exciting times for this boat coming up. This is one of the legs we were most worried about, perhaps for one or two of the short ones are going to be interesting too but the situation in the last thousand miles has been really tough, but we’ve been mentally preparing for that for about a year. I think the guys behind thought they might catch us up, but the boat went well and I think it surprised people how well it went in the light airs.
For now, this moment right here is the high point of this leg - having scored the results, being part of a team that I’m so proud of. This is the moment for me, for sure.”
ABN AMRO TWO are expected to arrive in Rio de Janeiro at around 09.30am GMT Saturday 11th March.
Current Leaderboard:
1st: ABN AMRO ONE: 49 points
2nd: ABN AMRO TWO: 34 points
3rd: Pirates of the Caribbean: 30.5 points
4th: Movistar: 28 points
5th: Brazil 1: 27.5 points
6th: Ericcson: 21 points
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