| ABN AMRO ONE COMES HOME IN SECOND PLACE |
| Saturday, 10 June 2006 |
ABN AMRO ONE COMES HOME IN SECOND PLACE
Outstanding crew performance overcomes light winds
10 June 2006: Despite the light winds endured by all in the 8th Leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, ABN AMRO ONE proved to its critics that the Juan Kouyoumdjian designed boats could perform well in light conditions by finishing in a hard-fought second place in Rotterdam this morning.
In what was one of the slowest legs of the race, ABN AMRO ONE finished the round Britain and Ireland leg thanks to a dogged crew performance and a number of well executed tactical decisions. After starting out from Portsmouth eight days ago Mike Sanderson and his crew eventually crossed the finish line 01h21.52 (Local Dutch time) this morning just over 3 minutes behind leg winner Brasil 1.
The ABN AMRO boats have usually struggled against the other Farr boats in the race and only really performed when winds gets to anything above 8 knots, however as Mike Sanderson commented as he arrived on the dock this leg was less about speed and more about tactics. “To be honest we are over the moon with the result because obviously it was going to be a tough one”, said Sanderson as he stepped back on Dutch soil. “It couldn’t have been any less our conditions but we took every opportunity we could and I think we surprised a few people with our hanging on in the light airs.”
Commenting on the conditions Mike continued, “The overriding memory of this leg will be the light conditions. If anyone had tried to set a powerboat record around England and Ireland they would have got it by miles as we never had more than one foot of chop - it was glassy calm all the way round. It was unbelievable. You would have to go back 15 years to find a week of glass around England and Ireland.”
After a slow start one of key tactical moments in the race for ABN AMRO ONE came as they were crossing the Irish Sea. With an area of high pressure [ie no wind] over the direct route to the southwest corner of Ireland all the boats skirted to the north of where they supposed the high to be. “The Farr boats were sailing away from us pretty quick,” recounted watch captain Mark Christensen. “They were 6-8 mile straight in front and Stan [Honey] said he wasn’t happy going that close to the high and so we tacked off and basically we didn’t go very far but we went far enough so that when the breeze filled in in the world we always had a bit more and bit more angle.”
As the leg came to it’s conclusion in the early hours of this morning ABN AMRO ONE were building speed on the way into Rotterdam closing on Brasil 1 to just over 3 minutes. Mike paid tribute, “We have a lot of respect for the Brazilians. If we had to be beaten by anyone, it was good to be them. They were going fast. They were going really quick and it is great for them.”
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