Yachting: It's a sailor's life for Mike

It is a surprise to learn Mike Sanderson, skipper of Volvo race leading boat ABN Amro 1, has yet to turn 34. It seems like that weather-beaten face - manicured by a combination of saltwater, searing sun and biting winds - has been around as long as the winged keel.

But its true - the three-time round-the-world veteran and America's Cup campaigner is a young captain, and a very successful one. As things stand he is helming a boat that is dominating this 31,000 nautical-mile race, despite finishing a painful nine seconds behind Movistar as they entered Wellington's Port Nicholson.

He's not feeling comfortable, though; nobody that's ever done a round-the-world race would use comfort as a term of description.

In fact, the timing of this interview was pushed back so the Aucklander could load up on as much sleep as possible ahead of the 6700nm to Rio de Janeiro leg that begins today.

"It's sleep deprivation and the tension of the whole situation, for sure. This leg [Melbourne to Wellington] might have only been three days but it's three days of intense competition, 24 hours a day. It's tough getting sleep, that makes it hard."

Sanderson expects three to four hours of sleep per night, maybe for as short as 15 minutes per time - the power nap was clearly designed for sailors. While the crew works a four-on, four-off shift, Sanderson and navigator Stan Honey work a floating, if you'll pardon the pun, shift.

"It's very much on demand. Sometimes, if it's sticky, we're awake for 30 hours. Hopefully we get out of that situation and are lucky enough to get a few hours sleep at once."

None of which sounds like fun.

Neither does the next leg; a 22-day grind through the southern Pacific Ocean, around the treacherous Cape Horn and up the east coast of South America to Rio de Janeiro.

"It's going to be tough. These coasts are extreme and then you're throwing icebergs in there and some pretty heinous low-pressure systems and there's just a whole lot of really bad stuff going on down in that part of the world," Sanderson revealed optimistically, saying that about two thirds across the Pacific a cold current drags several icebergs up to meet the boats.

"I'm certainly looking forward to getting into Rio in one piece."


High tech

ABN Amro 1 is not what you would call a sexy boat. One of its PR staff described it, rather unkindly, as having a "fat arse".

"It's basically to give us more horsepower at the expense of some drag," Sanderson explained.

It's high-tech and basic all at once.

Below deck is a spartan existence. Each sailor has seven feet of personal space but in reality it doesn't work that way. On a stormy day when a sail rips the crew will find themselves sharing their 'personal space' with a dripping wet sail that is being run through a sewing machine in a cell with no ventilation.

That seems a whole lot less glamorous than the America's Cup, where Sanderson has crewed for Oracle, helped coach America True and joined Team New Zealand to helm their B-boat just prior to the last, ill-fated campaign.

(By the way, Sanderson said he came off the water after his first day racing Dean Barker, ran into Russell Coutts and had to admit to him that it was obvious Alinghi was in a different class to the black boats.)

"The mixture of doing both the America's Cup and the Volvo is a good mix.

"In the America's Cup you spend a lot of other people's money on development, in the technology. A mixture of the technological edge America's Cup gives you and the experience you gain on the ocean doing this is perfect.

"In America's Cup, you're looking for ways to gain a second a mile, that's massive, here you're looking at 22 days at sea.

"In the America's Cup you're painting with a very fine brush; in the Volvo you're spray painting."

Which seems an apt analogy given the wielders of fine brushes are more driven by ego than your more humble spray painters.

"Yeah, in the America's Cup you learn to put up with some people. You don't have to get on, you have a specified time and place on the boat and you don't have to be mates," Sanderson said, before adding that the best America's Cup teams still tended to have a very good spirit.

Sanderson is busy building a team of guys he will race regularly with around the world. He has trusted weatherman Mike Quilter as part of his shore crew for this race, who in turn liaises with the same meteorologist who mapped Ellen MacArthur's record-breaking, single-handed around-the-world attempt.

They place enormous emphasis on getting out of the ports first, a fact that might be a surprise to those who think that 20 miles can't make that much difference over 6700.

At shortly after 2.30pm today, we'll have an idea if their homework has paid off.

On June 17, when they're scheduled to finish in Gothenburg, we'll know for sure. In-between, during shore leave in England, Sanderson has to deal with a different kind of nerves to watching a hulking chunk of ice approaching from starboard.

He's marrying fellow sailor Emma Richards. A match made in saltwater.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY