KEY POINTS:
Mike Sanderson claimed his second award in three days last night, being named Yachting New Zealand's Sailor of the Year in Auckland.
Sanderson, who skippered ABN Amro One to a resounding victory in the round-the-world race, was named Sailor of the Year in the International Sailing Federation awards
in Helsinki, Finland on Wednesday.
He returned to Auckland from Finland in time to attend the Yachting New Zealand excellence awards.
New Zealand's first Olympic sailing medallist, Jack Cropp, presented the trophy. The event marked the 50th anniversary of the gold medal won by Cropp and Peter Mander in Melbourne in 1956.
Few teams have dominated a round-the-world race quite like Sanderson's ABN Amro One. They not only came up with the fastest boat but knew how to sail it better than anyone.
Over eight months and 31,500 miles, ABN Amro One won all but three of the nine offshore legs and all but two of seven in-port races.
Other Kiwi crew members were Brad Jackson, Mark Christensen, David Endean and Tony Mutter.
ABN Amro One's dominance has been compared to that of Sir Peter Blake's Steinlager II, which won every leg in the 1989/90 race
Yachting commentator Peter Montgomery said Sanderson's leadership was instrumental in ABN Amro's success.
"Mike Sanderson was involved in all of the campaign, from funding, to key decisions on design, critical preparation before the race and then showed outstanding leadership, responsible for two boats in this last ocean race."
Those sentiments were echoed by Volvo Ocean race chief executive Glenn Bourke.
"The performance of ABN Amro One under Mike's stewardship, was one of the most impressive victories in the history of the event," Bourke said. "Six leg wins out of nine and five in-port victories from seven races says it all."
It was Sanderson's third round-the-world race, he has also been involved in two America's Cup campaigns, and has established himself as one of the world's best offshore sailors.
Montgomery said wherever Sanderson had gone, he had represented New Zealand and New Zealand sailing with honour and distinction "but through the glitz and the glamour he has never forgotten that he is a boy from the Onerahi Yacht Club".
Nominated alongside Sanderson in the sailor of the year category were star world champions Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams, board sailor Tom Ashley, who narrowly missed the RS:X world championship title this year, keel boat sailor Anatole Masfen, world 470 masters champions Richard and John Power, Finn sailor Dan Slater, who won a gold medal at Kiel week, and World 420 champions Carl Evans and Peter Burling.
Evans and Burling received the award for young sailor of the year. The 15-year-olds sailed away with the 420-class world championship in Spain, finishing 25 points ahead of compatriots Simon Cooke and Scott Illingworth.
Their coaches Cooke, Mat Brown and Richard Burling were also recognised receiving a merit awards.
Yachting awards
Sailor of the Year - 2006
Winner: Mike Sanderson
Finalists: Tom Ashley - Silver medallist RS:X (boardsailing) world championships 2006; Carl Evans and Peter Burling - 420 world champions 2006; Anatole Masfen - local, coastal and offshore keelboat sailing; Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams - Star world champions 2006; Richard and John Power - 470 Masters world champions 2006; Dan Slater - Finn, gold medal Kiel week 2006.