Peter Montgomery, known as "the voice of yachting" in this country and throughout the world made the request to Holmberg.  "Peter is one of the top international match race skippers and he's an articulate and interesting speaker," said Montgomery.  "It will be his job to take our viewers inside the heads of the skippers and crew and analyze, in as simple terms as he can, what is happening on the race course.  We expect a large viewership and Pete has a tough assignment trying to make a complicated sport simple for the viewers who don't understand every tack and gybe, but at the same time be technical enough to well serve the more experienced yachties in the audience.  I have every confidence he'll handle the task well."

In addition to Holmberg, Team Caribbean tactician and native New Zealander John Cutler will make occasional appearances to explain some of the more esoteric tactics and strategies being employed on the course.

"We may not have won on the water," said Team Caribbean's vice president of marketing Steve Morton, "but we certainly won the media battle. "Our campaign for the America's Cup in the year 2000 has caught the imagination of New Zealanders and that has been reflected in the amount of publicity we've been receiving.  The New Zealand Herald ran a long profile of Cutler and gave us extended coverage every day we were racing. Peter has been interviewed for radio and television shows every day since he's been here, including a live talk show called `Sports Cafe' on which he appeared with several of the country's most famous Rugby players."

Morton went on to say that the media exposure is very valuable in obtaining sponsorship and that he has had a full slate of meetings with interested international and New Zealand companies who like the concept and style of Team Caribbean.

"We're viewed as an international challenge," said Morton, "with a fresh face.  We're not bringing any baggage into the game and the Kiwis identify with us because they know what we're going through as they are a very small nation of just 3.5 million people.  The people will obviously support Team New Zealand in the Cup match, but since there is no New Zealand team in the five month long Challenger series, we think they'll get behind us.  That kind of support coupled with Team New Zealand's ever-growing media profile translates into sponsorship dollars."

On the race course, the Italian Prada Challenge surged to a 3-0 lead over Yaka France in their best-of-nine challenger final series of the 1998 Road to America's Cup Regatta. With the Italians, skippered by Francesco de Angelis, only two more wins away from victory in the challenging series, the pressure is on the French team, skippered by Luc Pillot, to find some winning  form. In the challenger final, the first team to win five races earns the right to challenge Team New Zealand for the  Road to America's Cup trophy at the weekend.

Following Holmberg's stint in the broadcasting booth, he will return to St. Thomas to resume his duties as head of the Team Caribbean America's Cup campaign.  Later in May he'll return to international competition with the Team Caribbean match racing team.