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HOLMBERG LEADS TEAM CARIBBEAN
TO CONGRESSIONAL CUP VICTORY
By Paul Larsen
Long Beach, CA--March 14 -- When Peter Holmberg and his crew of five sailors representing Team Caribbean stepped aboard their Catalina 37 to do battle in the final three races of the 1998 Congressional Cup, they led their closest competitors by two races. That meant that just one win in those last three matches would assure them of at least a tie if Scott Dickson and Luc Pillot were able to finish the day without a defeat. And since Holmberg and team were scheduled to race both Dickson and Pillot, they held their destiny in their own hands.
But first, the men from the Caribbean had to meet the men from the Baltic, led by Germany's Markus Weiser, who had already tagged Holmberg with one of his two defeats during the past four days of racing. In only a breath of wind that barely reached five knots all day, Weiser won by 34 seconds. Dickson, matched against woeful Russian Andrei Nikolaev who had just one victory in 15 races, scored a 50-second advantage to move within one point of tying Holmberg. Pillot faded a bit from contention with a loss to England's Andy Green.
Round 17 matched Holmberg versus Pillot, a race that followed Dickson against Francesco de Angelis of Italy, who going into the day had managed a total of just three victories. But the Italian, who is the designated skipped for the Prada Challenge for the America's Cup, was coached by four-time Congressional Cup champion Rod Davis. And although de Angelis is new to the match racing format, his trophy case is filled with silver from fleet racing regattas and world championships.
In a close race around the buoys, he took out Dickson by 18 seconds, guaranteeing Holmberg at least a tie for the 34th Congressional Cup. But Team Caribbean was too busy taking the lead against Pillot to focus attention on the race ahead of them, and when they crossed the line 37 seconds ahead of the Frenchman, they crossed as champions.
While Holmberg, ranked sixth in the world on the international match race rankings (of more than 1200 skippers that does not include Scott Dickson), was the pre-regatta favorite, not many docksiders would have had Dickson on their scratch sheets. But the New Zealander, who now lives in Long Beach, has been hard training for the past year. He was also racing with his brother Chris, who acted as tactician this year, but as skipper won this event in 1990 and '91.
Dickson closed out his Cinderella performance with a 59-second stomping of Holmberg, and while the Virgin Islander might be forgiven for a lack of concentration in this meaningless race, it was Dickson's second defeat of Team Caribbean in the regatta. For his efforts, the Kiwi-cum-Californian took home $5,000 and the respect of his more seasoned competitors.
At the awards ceremony that followed, Holmberg was presented a check for $7,500 as he donned the crimson blazer, the traditional Congressional Cup champion's attire. In doing so, he joined an elite group of sailors which includes Bill Ficker, Ted Turner, and Dennis Conner. And, as the skipper and co-founder of Team Caribbean's America's Cup Challenge for the event to begin in October '99, no doubt Holmberg recalled that those three gentlemen had also won the America's Cup
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