Yachting: Volvo win seals NZ sailor's boyhood dream

He has wanted it since he was a little boy and yesterday Mike Sanderson's dream of skippering a winning round-the-world yacht race team was fulfilled when ABN Amro One won the seventh leg, sealing victory in the 32,000 nautical-mile race.

Sanderson's team crossed the finish line at Portsmouth yesterday, nine days after leaving New York.

The win is their sixth in seven legs and has put them so far head of their opposition in the nine-leg race they cannot be beaten.

"To win this is huge for me," Sanderson said from Portsmouth.

"This is a dream I have had since I was a little boy.

"It is something I have worked towards since I was 10 years old. This is my Olympic gold, this is my Mt Everest."

But celebrations were muted yesterday as the ABN Amro syndicate mourned the loss of ABN Amro Two sailor Hans Horrevoets, who died on Thursday .

Horrevoets was swept overboard in heavy seas and although his crewmates picked him up, he didn't regain consciousness.

While his crew were shaken by Horrevoets death, Sanderson said the rough conditions at sea meant their focus was on getting themselves to the finish line safely.

"Ever since Hans' accident the weather has been hideous. We had to fight our own fight just to get the boat and us here in once piece," Sanderson said. "To think that Hans didn't make it puts things in perspective. I kept thinking about how I was surrounded by guys who were someone's son, someone's husband, father or boyfriend. I thought about those family members who came up to me before our southern ocean legs and said 'look after them'.

"I think the tragedy of this has yet to sink in."

While ABN Amro Two stopped racing after the accident, ABN Amro One continued, which is what Sanderson believes Horrevoets would have wanted.

"He has been trying to win the round-the-world race. The fact that we could do that today would please him."

The New Zealand skipper's victory in the race has been nothing short of outstanding.

Having completed two round-the-world races - the first with Grant Dalton's winning New Zealand Endeavour in 1993-94 and then Dalton's Merit Cup in 1997-98 - Sanderson has succeeded in not only putting together an extremely competent crew, which includes Kiwis Mark Christensen, Brad Jackson, Tony Mutter and David Endean, but also in designing a boat which has proved virtually untouchable.

Sanderson, who was brought up in tiny Maungatapere and first took to the water with the Onerahi Yacht and Whangarei Cruising Clubs, joins the likes of yachting greats Sir Peter Blake and Grant Dalton who have also won the gruelling lap of the planet.

He credited Dalton, now the head of Emirates Team New Zealand, with teaching him the elements of a good campaign.