AFTER TWO weeks of intensive trials, the ABN AMRO racing team announced the amateur sailors who will make up the crew of the second ABN AMRO vessel in the legendary Volvo Ocean Race 2005/2006.
While the first vessel, ABN AMRO 1, will be crewed entirely by professionals, sister-vessel ABN AMRO 2 will be crewed by eight amateur sailors aged between 21 and 30.
The eight winners, announced a few days ago are: Gerd Jan Poortman and Simeon Tienpont from Holland; Lucas Brun and André Mirsky from Brazil; Andrew Lewis and George Peet from the US; and occupying the places allocated for ‘rest of the world’, two Australians, Phil Harmer and Luke Molloy. The eight amateur sailors will join professionals Sebastien Josse, Nick Bice, Simon Fisher and Scot Beavis, who complete the crew list for the second ABN AMRO vessel.
Formerly known as the Whitbread Around the World Race, the Volvo Ocean Race is the world’s premier ocean yacht race and is one of the top international televised sporting events achieving more than 800 million viewers. The 2005/2006 race is due to start from Sanxenxo, Galicia, on November 5 with the first offshore leg being from Vigo, Northern Spain, to Cape Town in South Africa. There are nine legs in total and the course takes about eight months to complete, covering some 31,000 nautical miles and visiting 10 ports and nearly all continents.
