Holmberg's sole loss of the day was to Australia¦s Neville Whittey, who also posted a four-win record to take the Day 1 lead in Group B. Germany¦s Star World Champion, Alex Hagen, is third. Hagan earned a wildcard slot -- along with Soling helmsman Henrik Witzmann -- by upsetting triple Olympic gold medalist Jochen Schnmann in last week's German Match Race Championships 1998, an ISAF Grade 3 event held at the same venue.

Whenever the lake winds fail to appear, as they did during Group B racing, event organizers move the action to the inner harbor where the legs of the windward-leeward course are only 300 feet long and the 7.3 meter Diamont 2000 match boats are powered by ten state-of-the-art wind machines.

"It was good racing," says Holmberg "with the good starts being key -- win the start, sail up the cone of wind from the mid-way fans, then jump to the new wind from the top fans, and you're off. It's pretty wild. You need to push your opponent out of the wind cone and never let him back in."

Headed by No. 3 world-ranked helmsman Holmberg, Team Caribbean crew for the German match includes St. Thomas' Morgan Avery (trimmer) and Sweden's Mikael Bjorndahl (bow man) who both sailed with Holmberg in the Swedish Match Cup.

Hosted by the Yacht Club Langenargen and the Kressbronner Segler, the event is Germany's first ISAF Grade 1 in years and offers 100,000 DM purse as well as spectacular views of Switzerland and Austria.

The 12 competing teams, representing seven nations, are divided into groups designated Group A and B in the first Round Robin (worth 1 point), and Group C and D in the second (worth 1.5 points). The resulting top six, designated as Group E, sail a third Round Robin with the top four advancing to the best-of-three Semi Finals. The best-of-five Finals is set for Saturday.

In Group A action, Andy Beadsworth and his all British team scored five bullets to take an early lead. Beadsworth's impressive series included a win over countryman Chris Law's Nautica Racing Team. Law, is currently No. 2 in the ISAF Rankings. Of the 12 skippers, four are currently ranked worldwide among the Top 10, and eight among the Top 20.

Holmberg's international match racing team is sponsored on the circuit by its Team Caribbean America's Cup Challenge sponsors and American Airlines. For more information contact Arlene R. Martel at 340-776-0921.