"Mike Sanderson" is a New Zealand sailor. Perhaps best known for being awarded the prestigious ISAF World Sailor of the Year Awards/ISAF World Sailor of the Year Award for winning the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race as skipper of ABN Amro I. At 35 years old, he became the youngest skipper to ever win a Volvo Ocean Race in the 2005–06 Volvo Ocean Race/2005-2006 edition of the race. (Lionel Péan had previously won the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1986, aged 29).

From 2007 to 2010 he was Team Director of Team Origin, a potential British challenger for the 2013 America's Cup.

He returned to Skipper (boating)/skipper Team Sanya (the Irish-Chinese entry in the race) in the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race. The boat, formerly known as Telefónica Blue in the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race, has been plagued with instrument and hull failures. As of 30 March 2012 the boat is currently being shipped to Miami to be repaired so it can rejoin the race in Leg 7.

More Mike Sanderson on Wikipedia.

It's been tough since we left Wellington, but we've done some amazing sailing. I think the guys did an awesome job.

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It is a very wet and windy part of the world. Throw in some growlers and a couple of Russian fishing fleets and it is an obstacle course that will provide for some interesting weeks and very nervous times.

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Still pretty slow going ... as we are pretty much directly downwind from Rio.

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It was an unbelievable yacht race, no doubt about that. I got a shocking start and had to dig our way out of that and we were on the pace on the first beat. I told the guys it was going to be a long race and that we would have to dig in.

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We are all very excited, (with) five Kiwis on board we have had an enjoyable race to date and we're looking forward to getting back down into some familiar waters now.

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We've had a pretty wild couple of days. It feels like a Southern Ocean leg again. It's that familiar old feeling of wishing you were there, and once you get there you just look forward to getting out!

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The teams and designers are responsible for putting the boats together and deciding how we want to do that - whether we want lighter and faster materials or whether we want heavier and more robust materials.

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It looks like all our hard work and our new approach has paid off.

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