CIGNA Day 2
Holmberg Tough in Knickerbocker Cup Opener
September 10, 1997

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands -- Designated skipper for the Virgin Islands America's Cup Challenge (VIACC), Peter Holmberg, and tactician teammate, John Cutler, finished 3-1 in today's round-robin opener of the CIGNA Knickerbocker Cup hosted by the Knickerbocker Yacht Club on a cold and cloud-covered New York Harbor.

Racing in 10-18 knot wind conditions in Group B, Team Virgin Islands will complete their final four races of the qualifying round-robin tomorrow with the top four J-105 skippers meeting Group A winners for a best-of-five quarter-final series. V.I. Team competition on the international match racing circuit is supported by VIACC Gold Level Sponsors.

One of 16 world-class skippers from nine countries competing for important world ranking points, No. 6 world-ranked Holmberg won the first start, then easily defeated France's Sebastien Destremau before taking on Australian match racing champion David Clark in the morning's second race. "We entered the starting arena on starboard and lined Clark up," reports Holmberg. "He delayed his escape and we turned hard to avoid sinking him, taking his pulpit clear off." After forcing a first penalty on Clark, Holmberg's continued attack forced a second on the America's Cup veteran before Team Virgin Islands built a ten boat-length lead to the finish.

Holmberg toyed with wildcard entry, American Todd Berman, before the third start and maintained a four-length lead throughout what the St. Thomas skipper dubbed a 'sleeper' match.

Facing No. 4 world-ranked Bertrand Pacé in race four, Holmberg held the Frenchman to an even start and dogged him closely for three legs of the double windward-leeward course. "On the final run to the finish, we attacked from behind to get a leeward overlap," says Holmberg. "Pacé threw a jibe. We jibed inside and protested. He luffed hard, but we managed to roll over him -- another protest." Both protests were disallowed as Team V.I. led Pacé toward the finish with a one-knot current slowly sweeping them north. "We created an overlap and hailed for him to jibe to allow us proper course to the finish," says Holmberg. "When Pacé delayed, we protested. When he finally jibed, we immediately turned for the line. Pacé's end was favored and he crossed five feet ahead. The umpires never saw our protest flag."

Other top-ranked skippers, including several America's Cup contenders, competing in the East Coast's premier professional match racing event are: Australian Peter Gilmour, winner of the 1997 World Championship of Match Racing (Nippon Challenge); Marc Pajot (Switzerland's FAST 2000); Dawn Riley (America True); Murray Jones (Team New Zealand); Denmark's Mikkel Rossberg; New Zealand's Gavin Brady; Finland's Staffan Lindberg; Great Britain's Andy Green; Croatia's Tomislav Basic; America Cup-winning helmsman David Dellenbaugh and Terry Hutchinson of Annapolis.