Volvo Ocean Race Leg 2 finish in Melbourne
Mike Sanderson and his exhausted crew on ABN AMRO ONE made a hat trick by winning three stages of the Volvo Ocean Race.After 18 days, 22 hours, 8 minutes and 40 seconds at sea, Mike Sanderson (NZ) and his exhausted crew on the black Dutch boat, ABN AMRO ONE, made a hat trick by winning three stages of the Volvo Ocean Race in a row; leg one, the Cape Town in-port race and leg two from Cape Town to Melbourne.
Sanderson, clearly relieved at completing this, the first three of the challenging southern ocean legs in the event, said, "I am really relieved. It has been a very stressful last 18 hours, but that is nothing compared with the leg as a whole. I have never known anything like it."
After passing through Port Phillip Heads, ABN AMRO ONE crossed the finish line off Williamstown, Melbourne, to complete the 6,400 nautical mile leg on Saturday January 21. ABN AMRO ONE leads the Volvo Ocean Race with 29 points, five points clear of ABN AMRO TWO skippered by Sebastien Josse (FR) which finished just over four hours behind the winners.
The relatively inexperienced ABN AMRO TWO crew are awaiting ratification of the Gant Time 24-hour run world record for monohulls.
movistar skippered by Bouwe Bekking crossed the finish line on Sunday to take the final place on the podium.
After the finish the boats made their way up the Yarra River, to perform a limbo under the Bolte Bridge before arriving at the Waterfront City Race Village, Docklands. Huge crowds gathered to watch the boats progress live from two massive super-screens.
Pirates of the Caribbean, skippered by Paul Cayard, is expected to finish late Monday and ING Real Estate Brunel, skippered by Grant Wharington from Melbourne, is estimated to be home on Tuesday.
Brazil 1 was dismasted approximately 1200 miles from Fremantle and is making her way towards Western Australia under jury Rig.
Ericsson retired from leg two on January 5 due to a failure in the keel movement system. Just two days into the leg, one of the rods broke close to the clevis on one of the two hydraulic cylinders that control the canting of the keel. The sailing crew and shore team are now in Melbourne, waiting for their boat to arrive by container ship and preparing for a new start.
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