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HOLMBERG WINS
WITH PHOTO-FINISH PENALTY TURN

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Defending champion Peter Holmberg of the U.S. Virgin Islands overcame a pre-start foul by executing a perfect penalty turn at the finish of the last race to beat Germany's Markus Wieser by Congressional Cup Saturday.

Wieser, the world's No. 6-ranked match racer, had won 12 consecutive races going into his climactic match with the fifth-ranked Holmberg in 12 knots of breeze on the outer harbor.  The two would up even with 15 wins and 3 losses through the double round robin, but Holmberg's win over Wieser in the first round was the tiebreaker.

Holmberg won $7,500 and all of his crew received Longines watches worth a total of $10,000, Wieser won $5,000 and third-place Francesco de Angelis of Italy (12-6) won $2,500.

It was perhaps the strongest field in the 35 years the Long Beach Yacht Club has been staging the even, Rolex Yachtsman of the Year and Whitbread Round the World Race winner Paul Cayard was fourth at 11 1/2 - 6, followed by 1996-97 winner.

Gavin Brady at 11-7.  Cayard's half-point penalty for a collision Wednesday cost him third place and $2,5000.

All of the top four except Wieser will sail in he America's Cup starting at Auckland, N.Z. in October.  Holmberg integrated his own Team Caribbean campaign with Team Dennis Conner when funding fell short.  "Back home we announced that [Conner] joined us, "Holmberg said joking.  Conner already has a designated helmsman in Ken Read, who called tactics for Holmberg this week.  "I'm just there to help the boat win," Homberg said. 

Other members of his crew were main sail trimmer John Gluek and headsail trimmers Jon Gunderson and Chris Busch.  All played critical roles in the final maneuver.

"It's just timing," Holmberg said.  "We talked 'em through it all the way down [to the finish line]."

Holmberg was angered when the on-water umpires tagged him for a penalty less than a minute before the gun.  "[Wieser] hit me from behind and they gave me the penalty," he said, "I don't know what the umpires were thinking."

The first time they converged upwind, Holmberg had starboard right-of-way and momentarily bore away to force Wieser into a deeper duck-a maneuver called "hunting."  When he had to alter course to avoid hitting Wieser, Holmberg claimed foul and thought he had canceled out the penalty turn he owed.  "But no call," Holmberg said.

Then he was really angry.  "But we kept our cool and turned that anger into aggression.  I told my crew we had to sail fast and get far enough in front to do the turn."

A lead of 22 seconds at he last windward mark was just enough.  "I's just timing," Holmberg said.  "We talked it through all the way [downwind]."

Just before crossing next to the committee boat, the crew hoisted the headsail, dropped the spinnaker and Holmberg turned hard left.  As the Catalina 37 spun on its keel, the bow rotated around to cross the line just before Wieser blew through at the other end.

Wieser, after reeling off a dozen wins in a row, said, "We should be happy with second place.  But it was so close."

Betsy Alison, the Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, had a winless week (0-18) to earn the event's traditional booby prize:  the late Arthur Knapp's classic book, "Sail Your Boat Right."