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ABN
AMRO BOAT 1 (Netherlands)
Skipper Mike Sanderson (NZ)
Designer Juan Kouyoumdjian
ABN AMRO BOAT 2 (Youth Team)
Skipper TBA
Designer Juan Kouyoumdjian
www.abnamro.com
ABN
AMRO : : (The Netherlands) has entered two boats
into the Volvo Ocean Race. Both boats are
designed by Argentinean, Juan Kouyoumdjian.
Irishman, Killian Bushe, builder of illbruck,
the winner in 2001-02, is constructing both
boats. It is a three year project, with a
budget of approx. EUR 20 million.
The crew of the first boat are professionals,
but the second boat will have an international
crew of promising young men and women aged
between 21 and 30. Applications are
exclusively being accepted via a dedicated
website: www.abnamro.com/team
Mike
Sanderson - Skipper
Right
on schedule
At
the beginning of April, we were off to a flying start.
Although it is great to be back out there again, it is
always hard when you are going to be at sea for a couple
of weeks. Everyone is leaving his loved ones but then
that's the game we are in. This
is such a crucial time in our preparation for the Volvo
Ocean Race. If we get this bit right then for sure we
will have a great race come start time in November.
We
started with some very smooth, quick sailing, pushing
along at 19 knots and then ran into some rough lows
during the second night out. Fast, wet, and wild:
writing my logs has been a bit of a challenge with the
nav station bucking like a wild horse. But the boat was
beautifully in control and sailing to all its targets!
The guys were in dry suit tops and crash helmets on deck
to deal with the spray. It comes at you like a full on
fire hose.
April
2 brought sun and smoother sailing: a good chance for us
all to get dry and circulate some air through the boat.
Everyone is now fully locked into life on board, as per
normal. Food is a hot topic of conversation, especially
since we only have three flavours of freeze-dried meals
to choose from on this trip!
The
bow takes a beating
The night of the April 4 was spectacular. The sea was
messy with short, nasty waves. Instead of the boat
surfing down them, we were charging through them. This
sent massive sheets of water in the air as we hit the
next wave at speeds as high as 32 knots!
ABN
AMRO 1 - Christening
As
could be expected, there was some damage. Steaming into
the icy Labrador Current at 25-30 knots, the stainless
steel bow pulpit lost a match with a big wave and came
out bent. Then we hit something that took a good chunk
out of the bow...the poor bow. Not sure what it was but
it caused three loud bangs as it hit the bow, then the
keel and finally the weather rudder. We dropped the
gennaker and did a full-on check. Once we were sure that
we were OK, back up went the Code 6 Fractional and off
we were again, blasting along at 30 plus knots in total
pitch-blackness! That's ocean racing for you.
Sadly
a ridge of high pressure swallowed us up earlier than
expected. So the breeze died at about 4 a.m. But after
our first night of full on sailing at 30 plus knots of
down wind stuff, we were ready for a little
break
ha-ha. Tuesday April 5 marked Brad's 37th
birthday and a lot of delicious chocolate bars he was
kind enough to share with the rest of us! The next
day saw us just 650 miles from Newport: that's only
roughly the distance of a Fastnet or a Sydney-Hobart
race. We put a lot of effort into keeping track of the
Gulf Stream and using this ocean river to our best
advantage.
The
boat feels great! We modified some bits and pieces after
Rotterdam. It's been time well spent making more testing
and development possible: testing sails, testing Polars
- which are the theoretical targets for the boat - and
generally spending the time getting to know our boat
better. ABN AMRO is a lot more powerful than the Volvo
60!
On
Saturday April 9 Stan turned 50! Man, we spoilt
him rotten on his birthday. Not only did he get to stay
up all night to navigate us through the Georges Banks
while doing 13 knots ocean upwind in 25 knots of wind,
leaping off some pretty nice waves, but then at 6 am he
got to serve himself some beautiful chicken stew for
breakfast. Sunday 10 April saw us hit US coastal
waters with a little un-interrupted sleep, a nice hot
shower and some spicy chicken wings in sight. Our last
night on open seas brought winds up to 40 knots. The
boat was just smoking along, very fast and very wet.
Spicy
chicken wings and NY ahoy
After nine days and 17 hours at sea, it is good to be in
the US. At Newport Shipyard we have been refitting the
ABN AMRO for our journey back. Thanks to the guys on our
shore team, who are working long days for us and are
probably looking forward to seeing us leave for New York
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