Yachting: 'Black Betty' bangs on in lead

The crew on ABN Amro One retrieve their anchor which they set to keep from being blown backwards. Picture / Reuters

New Zealand skipper Mike Sanderson was looking forward to a peaceful journey into Baltimore to end the fifth leg of the round-the-world race and then a meal of buffalo chicken wings.

But the team's 21m yacht, nicknamed Black Betty, had decided it was time to live up to its "bam-ba-lam" name and the sound of internal disruption rang around the bay.

Sanderson's team ABN Amro One crossed the finish line yesterday to win the 9260km leg after 15 days, 2 hours, 47 minutes, 52 seconds at sea.

But the win, their fourth in five legs, wasn't without its dramas.

After an agonising 16-hour journey across the 185km stretch of Chesapeake Bay, ABN Amro One fell into a windless hole just 1.5km from the finish.

Surrounded by spectator boats and with movistar charging towards them, they started drifting backwards.

So the call was made for the anchor to be dropped. Problem was it needed to be assembled first. "The anchor we use is all in bits: it folds away," Sanderson explained from Baltimore.

"So here we are trying to wriggle the boat along in really light conditions, all the spectator boats are around us and all you can hear downstairs is this bashing and crashing, like some metal workshop, as the guys are building the anchor.

"Luckily it worked as we were on our way back out of Chesapeake Bay at nearly two knots."

Spanish entry movistar was second while Pirates of the Caribbean were expected to finish third overnight.

ABN Amro One now have a commanding 22-point lead. Sanderson put their latest win down to superior boat speed. "This leg we were fast. In the trade winds which dominated half the leg we were able to dig ourselves out from the back of the fleet into the lead which we then were able to control for the rest of the leg.

"I know there is going to be talk from the other teams about our boat being fast. As I said to the guys in our debrief today that should only been seen as a compliment to the team. This team was incredibly involved in the design of this boat."

After a disappointing start - they were last out of Rio de Janeiro after breaking a halyard lock then struggled to stay with the fleet in the light winds - ABN Amro One overtook movistar for the lead 20 minutes after passing through the scoring gate off Brazil.

They maintained this position despite a few anxious moments in the latter stages which had the crew, which includes New Zealanders Sanderson, Brad Jackson, David Endean, Tony Mutter and Mark Christensen, constantly looking over their shoulders.

"Obviously I was concentrating on going forward and I could see people staring into the distance as if they could see something. At one stage I had to say to Brad [Jackson]: 'Mate you're going to have to stop that [looking behind]. You're freaking me out."'

Sanderson said the weather was the most challenging aspect of the leg, which started on April 2. "Every day it was either a ridge of high pressure, a cold front or a low in front. It was like flicking through the pages of a weather book. Luckily movistar fell into most of the same potholes as we did."

The end of leg five marks a turning point in the race with the final four legs considerably shorter.

"The problem with the very short legs is that they don't allow us to average out condition wise," Sanderson said. "If we get under five or six knots of breeze, we will come last. If it's windy then we'll probably win."

The next 400 nautical mile leg to New York starts on May 7.

Standings

Based on current race positions

ABN Amro One (Ned) 62.5pts
movistar (Spain) 40.5
ABN Amro Two (Ned) 39.5
Pirates of the Caribbean (USA) 39
Brasil 1 (Brazil) 33
Ericsson (Swe) 29.5.