The crew of the ABN Amro Two (the V60 formerly known as the Tyco) has won the 4,500 plus mile Route de l’Equateur race from Marseille, France to Congo-Brazzaville. Competing against four other boats, the team finished the race in 22 days, 16 hours and 28 minutes.

For most of the team members this was their first race crossing the equator and were using the event as a training session for the forthcoming Volvo Ocean Race. The team of ABN Amro Two took control from the start, and at times maintained a lead of about 200 miles ahead of their nearest competitor.

The team of ABN Amro Two comprises 12 young high potential, professional sailors between the ages of 21 and 30 with extensive sailing experience with smaller boats but who’ve never sailed together as a team. In less than six months they will sail together in the Volvo Ocean Race.

Most of the young sailors were selected during a worldwide competition that was launched in November 2004 on the ABN AMRO website and received more than 1,800 submissions. It’s the first time an open selection process, started on internet, was used to select a young, relatively inexperienced crew for the Volvo Ocean Race.

After four separate qualifying competitions – one for the Netherlands, one for Brazil, one for the United States and one for ‘the rest of the world’ – a total of 20 candidates travelled to Portugal for the final crew selection and eight made the cut this March. An additional four core crew members are more experienced offshore sailors, including Vendee Globe skipper Seb Josse, who also never sailed the Volvo Ocean Race before.