Probably Hollywood, not a Dutch bank, but regardless where the script came from, the story of ABN AMRO TWO has been the stuff of fairytales.

The clocks showed it to be 23 seconds past 1320GMT – not quite half past midnight local time - when ABN AMRO TWO crossed the finishing line.

They have finished second to their elders on ABN AMRO ONE for the second time in two legs, repeatedly crushing the challenge of crews packed with world champions; they sit second on the overall leaderboard and in sailing 563 miles in a day have broken a world record. Not bad for a crew with an average age of 26, or “the kids” as they are known around the block.

“Given where we all were when this projected started this was a dream come true,” Andrew Lewis, 23, said. “To be getting these results is absolutely incredible.”

It seems to have come so easily. What is the secret, why have crews of professionals who have sailed this race so many times before been forced to limp home with breakages, while a crew of so-called novices escaped unscathed to dance on the podium?

Lewis added, “We are not scared to take a chance and that will worry the other boats. In this leg we got in the right pressure system, we have a solid boat, everything was working well. It was a good sea state, the breeze was in the right direction and we have a lot of good helmsmen onboard so we can put a fresh guy on every half an hour. We have a very close team and we all know we are fighting for our reputations, we are going to go the extra mile to get things done. But in saying that there were a couple of times we just pushed too hard and broke bits of the boat! We will learn in time.”

Everything that has been thrown at them has just been taken in their stride. Even when a fire broke out onboard with the leg nearing its conclusion, it was only worthy of a passing comment by Simon Fisher during a radio interview. You get the feeling that these young sailors are completely fearless. Indeed, where the other crews, notably Ericsson, strongly supported the addition of ice waypoints to steer the fleet away from the icebergs, this team threw their toys out of the pram and said “but that’s taking the excitement out of the Southern Ocean.” Fisher doesn’t necessarily continue to hold that view now with the benefit of hindsight.

“It was a lot more demanding than the first leg,” he said. “We had a lot more demanding conditions. A lot of the time the weather didn’t agree with what we were saying it would be. You can’t plan for that and the frustration when something happens is tough, like when the black boat rolled over us in the high pressure system coming out of Cape Town, but it's all part of the learning.

“It was the fastest sailing we’ve ever done. I changed my mind about the ice gates when we were down there, kind of figured it was better to sail home than walk home.”

Amazingly, while the rest of the crews mulled on the lows of getting stuck in the low pressure systems found along the track, the crew of ABN AMRO TWO didn’t report a dull moment.

In fact they found time to party. In addition to singing “happy birthday” to their yacht last week to celebrate her first year out of the boat shed, Nick Bice, Fisher and Simeon Tienpont all celebrated another year on the clock.

Tienpont recalled, “If you had told me a year ago that I would celebrate my birthday in the Southern Ocean I would probably look at you strangely. But it was my birthday and life goes on as normally as it can. But this wasn’t very normal, the boys had a little song, which was normal, but made up a special energy bar with shaving foam as a cake. That wasn’t very normal. Not sure I’d do it again.”

Now more celebrations will begin. The Australians onboard have another thing to laugh about in that they are the first home out of the entire fleet and the huge crowd, especially given the time of night, made the occasion more special for those from Down Under.

Luke Molloy was among them. “This is absolutely fantastic, look at the crowd. To think this time last year I’d be doing this. To be doing this sailing alone is fantastic, never mind being the first Aussie back. This is a moment, seeing all these people, that will stay with me a long time.”

There was even a heady point in the race, before they passed the second scoring gate - a gate they rounded in second place as they did at both gates - that they briefly held the lead in the leg.

As they are fond of saying, “who would have thought last year…” One man who really didn’t know what to expect was Hans Horrevoets, who in addition to sailing the boat was also one of the 'Pop Idol' style judges selecting the members of this record-breaking crew.

“Let’s be honest, when we left Vigo I wondered if we would be competitive or not, that was my biggest concern. The first leg we showed we are competitive, and this leg we showed we can be up there.

“We almost had the black boat. We are very happy and very proud. Of course I had my doubts (about his own well-being onboard with non-professional sailors). I have sailed a lot with young crews. To find talent is easy, there are a lot of very good sailors out there, but we set up a good structure because young crews are often very horizontal and don’t stand up and make decisions, but you need that in offshore sailing. I think in this crew we have the guys making the decisions and that makes a team. A great team with these guys.”

The crazy thing is these guys want more. This script could have been penned by Steven Spielberg himself yet the crew have as good as thrown it back in his face. They almost unanimously believe they can challenge for the whole title.

Skipper Sebastien Josse, drenched in champagne and sporting a knowing smile, said, “Six months ago I knew I arrived in a really big team because they had all this money and two boats, and I expected this would be a good campaign. This good? Oh no. when you see the other teams, people like Paul Cayard and Torben Grael. They have Olympic medals and I am just a sailor from France. I have my feet on the ground, this is a long race, but we have started very good and I am excited about what we can do. Why can’t we do better?” Not many people are challenging that suggestion these days.

Source: Event Media