Mike Sanderson joins Team ABN AMRO as skipper in the Volvo Ocean Race

Mike Sanderson has joined Team ABN AMRO as their skipper for its 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race campaign. The experienced sailor from Whangarei, New Zealand will be the skipper on the first boat of the ABN AMRO Team.

Mike Sanderson has sailed in the Whitbread and Volvo Ocean Race previously and is an experienced canting keel sailor. Roy Heiner, responsible for technical management of the team: “Mike matches with the team and with our boat. He has vast experience in sailing with a canting keel, a new feature of the specially designed class of the V70 to be used in this upcoming edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. As this device will be applied for the first time for a sailing race over such a long distance, Mike is the natural choice of skipper for us.”

ABN AMRO is now entering the next phase of the project. Mike Sanderson, along with Roy Heiner, will select the crew for the boat, due to be launched at the end of 2004. Mike Sanderson, “I am happy and proud that I have joined the ABN AMRO Team. It is an ambitious and promising campaign, which includes all elements to make the race successful.”

One of the world’s leading race yacht designers, Juan Kouyoumdjian, has designed the boat, which is currently being constructed by Killian Bushe in Lelystad, the Netherlands. At the beginning of September the press will be invited for a meeting with the ABN AMRO Team, skipper Mike Sanderson, designer Juan Kouyoumdjian, and builder Killian Bushe.