Yachting: 9 sec gap after 1450 miles

Movistar narrowly leads ABM Amro One into Wellington Harbour at the end of leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race yesterday. Picture / Mark Mitchell

Sixteen years ago Mike Sanderson sat on Auckland Harbour watching the epic battle between Grant Dalton's Fisher and Paykel and Sir Peter Blake's Steinlager Two unfold.

Four years later he was on Dalton's New Zealand Endeavour which heaved itself over the line to beat Chris Dickson's Tokio into Auckland.

Yesterday Sanderson made the calls on ABN Amro One as it battled for line honours with movistar in the third leg of the round the world race from Melbourne to Wellington.

In the end, movistar won by an unbelievable nine seconds - the closest finish in the history of the race.

ABN Amro had a comfortable 20 nautical mile lead over movistar heading into the last night at sea but after barrelling into Cook Strait in 30 knots of breeze, Sanderson's team came to a halt in a dying breeze.

"We went to three knots then down to one and a half and then we parked up. It was just a lemon," he said. "Two hours later there they [movistar] were right beside us."

It was game on then as the two battled it out in next-to-no wind which forced them into multiple sail changes in an effort to wring every ounce of speed out of their boats.

The light conditions were not the most favourable for Sanderson's wide-bottomed black boat.

"If we had a light-air rocket then I guess we could have won the race but that wasn't what stopped us winning it," he said. "If we had a light-air machine we wouldn't have had a 30-mile lead coming down here."

One of five New Zealanders on board, Sanderson said it would have been nice to have won the leg home but - "We can't be upset. We have extended our lead in the Volvo Ocean Race. The guys did a great job and it was an awesome race. We lost 32 miles in 40 miles. There is nothing we could do about that."

For Spanish entry movistar, plagued by gear failure, the win will be a huge confidence boost and brings ABN Amro One's unbeaten run to an end.

The main decision-maker on board movistar was Wellington's Stuart Bannatyne, who said the key for his team was staying in touch with the slick ABN Amro One across the Tasman.

"I think we made a nice little jump on them coming around the south coast of the North Island.

"We think we did a good job of getting that right and we got in front and managed to hold them off."

Bannatyne and Sanderson were teammates on New Zealand Endeavour in the 1993-94 race.

"Moose [Sanderson] made a comment to us as we passed by: 'No one can bag Volvo ocean racing now!' Obviously, it's been an absolutely awesome spectacle. I have never been involved in a race as close as that."

While ABN Amro had little damage during the gruelling 1450 nautical mile leg, movistar were last night planning to take their boat out of the water for repairs, resulting in a two-hour penalty at Sunday's restart.