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Melbourne - A one-two finish by Dutch boats ABN AMRO ONE and TWO has put them in the lead in the overall standings after two legs of the Volvo Ocean Race.
After 18 days, 22 hours, eight minutes and 40 seconds at sea, skipper Mike Sanderson of New Zealand and his crew on ABN AMRO ONE crossed the finish line off Williamstown in Port Phillip Bay on Saturday to score maximum points in the Cape Town, South Africa, to Melbourne leg.
Surrounded by 30 or 40 pleasure craft, it crossed the line at Williamstown inside Port Phillip Bay at 8.08pm local time (09h08 GMT), ending the 11 300km leg. ABN AMRO TWO was second, about four hours behind.
 
The seven multi-million-dollar yachts left South Africa on January 2.
ABN AMRO ONE now leads the nine-leg race with 29 points, five points ahead of ABN AMRO TWO. ABN AMRO ONE has three wins after winning the first leg from Spain to Cape Town and the in-port race in Cape Town.
Movistar of Spain finished in third place Sunday. United States-entry Pirates of the Caribbean is in fourth and will likely finish Monday or Tuesday and ING Real Estate Brunel is in fifth place.
Brasil 1 broke its mast last week in the Southern Ocean, about 2 200km from Melbourne and is out of the second leg. The seventh boat, Ericsson, forfeited the leg with keel damage and was shipped to Melbourne.
The 58 000km race includes other stops in New Zealand, Brazil, the United States, Britain and the Netherlands before the finish in Goteborg, Sweden, in June.
The Melbourne in-port race is scheduled for February 4. The yachts will leave Melbourne on the third leg for Wellington, New Zealand, on February 12, with an expected finish there on February 16. - Sapa-AP
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