ABN AMRO ONE wins longest Volvo leg

The team of professionals sailing ABN AMRO ONE, with Mike Sanderson NZL in charge, remained focused and foot perfect throughout the whole of Leg 4, the longest leg of the Volvo Ocean Race at 6700 nautical miles.

They drifted across the finish line on March 11 in Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro 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 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 how 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 day four, ABN AMRO ONE was back in 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 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.

The battle for the second and third podium positions raged until the very last moment. In the last hours of the leg, Paul Cayard (USA) and Pirates of the Caribbean team regained second position to cross the line followed just 30 minutes later by the young guns on ABN AMRO TWO led by Frenchman Sebastien Josse.

Local heroes, Brasil 1 skippered by multiple Olympic medallist, Torben Grael (BRA), missed a podium position in Rio de Janeiro, their home port, by the slimmest of margins, finishing 25 minutes behind the Dutch boat.

As Cayard and his crew crossed the finish line, ABN AMRO TWO was just four miles behind her and Brasil 1, a further two. The white Dutch yacht claimed third, and Brasil 1 missed out on her place in the sun by three nautical miles, finally finishing in fourth place.

Paul Cayard/Pirates of the Caribbean: "Second is a good finish. It was a long six hours and we had everything thrown upon us. It really tested our selves, our boat and our whole campaign. I am really pleased with the consistency of results. We always said it would take us to Rio before we were up to pace."

Lucas Brun (BRA)/ABN AMRO TWO: "The experience of being the first Brazilian to hit home shores is absolutely amazing and I really did not expect this. It has been a very hard trip and just to have got here would be good. Not to have sailed in the other legs and then to finally sail this one and sail home was a dream come true."

Knut Frostad (NOR)/Brasil 1: "We pushed the boat very hard and always knew we were the team who had a lot to learn. There was a lot of mixed emotion as we crossed the finish line especially for the Brazilians whose goal was better than fourth."

Ericsson Racing Team arrived in Rio de Janeiro in fifth place. The story of their leg is one of immense frustration. On day four, they blew out a spinnaker, which took 36 hours to repair. The lack of this crucial sail prevented the team from sailing where they wanted to and the three boats to the south slipped away into more breeze. On day nine, 27 February, the boat did a spectacular Chinese gybe. Luckily no one was hurt and no gear was damaged. In a situation like this, they were very lucky not to break their mast. The team was back up to speed again in a few hours, but it again cost them precious miles.

In the approach to Cape Horn, there was a glimmer of hope that Ericsson might be able to pass ABN AMRO TWO. The team set their biggest spinnaker at first light in their attempt to overtake.  Pushing hard until about 120 miles short of Cape Horn itself, the sea state was so unfriendly that the spinnaker was dropped. More drama followed shortly thereafter when, in the mountainous seas, their battery bank broke free and began to short on some carbon structure, starting a resin fire.  Smoke and flames were beginning to show and the team quickly levered the whole bank away from the carbon, solving the immediate problem, and it was back to business

Movistar Sailing Team skippered by Dutchman Bouwe Bekking arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil five days after the first boat in the Volvo Ocean Race. The team were having a highly competitive leg four until just before Cape Horn when they suffered a major leak surrounding the keel box. They suspended racing and motored into Ushuaia, Argentina, for repairs before finishing the leg in fickle and light winds.

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