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Volvo Ocean Race • Leg 4
Sanders’One again in Rio
"It was a very stressful leg and the leg that I was most worried about"
samedi 11 mars 2006 –
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.
Cayard and Josse complete podium in Brazil
After 6,700 nautical miles of racing, 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 at 07:06:50 GMT (04:06:50 local time) 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.
At 2200 GMT last night, the drama was played out as Pirates of the Caribbean stalled in a light patch of wind and Brasil 1 swept pass to take second place with a one mile advantage. ABN AMRO TWO was just nine miles behind. But by 0318 GMT, and the finish of leg winner, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), the Pirates had regained control, pushing the Brazilians back to third place. In the next four hours, the young team of ABN AMRO ONE took it one step further and deposed Brasil 1 of a place on the podium.
As Cayard and his crew crossed the finish line, ABN AMRO TWO was just four miles behind her and Brasil 1, a further two. At 07.36 GMT, 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 at 0755 GMT.
– 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 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.”
| # | YACHT | SGPTS | PLPTS | PTLPTS | FINISH TIME | ELAPSED TIME | POP | POSITION OVERALL |
| 1 | ABN1 | 3.5 | 7.0 | 10.5 | 11/03/06 03:18:23 | 020d 01h 48m 23s | 49.0 | 1 |
| 2 | PIRATES | 3 | 6.0 | 9.0 | 11/03/06 07:06:50 | 020d 05h 36m 50s | 30.5 | 3 |
| 3 | ABN2 | 2 | 5.0 | 7.0 | 11/03/06 07:36:10 | 020d 06h 06m 10s | 35.0 | 2 |
| 4 | BRAZIL | 2.5 | 4.0 | 6.5 | 11/03/06 07:55:04 | 020d 06h 25m 04s | 26.5 | 5 |
| 5 | ERICSSON | 1.5 | 3.0 | 4.5 | 11/03/06 19:12:52 | 020d 17h 42m 52s | 21.0 | 6 |
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