Chatting to the giants

A pre-Colorcraft Gold Cup conference call with series leader Magnus Holmberg and the great Peter Gilmour

The following interview took place as a preview to the Colorcraft Gold Cup in Bermuda between questionaire Keith Taylor, OneWorld's Peter Gilmour and Magnus Holmberg, current leader of the Swedish Match Tour and also part of Sweden's Victory Challenge.
Q: Let's start first of all, with you, Magnus. You already are leading in the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour this year with two victories and this is your third event. You won the tour last year, despite a seventh place here. Tell us how you are going to come at it this year, and also, tell us about the value to you in the match-racing circuit of events like this?

MAGNUS HOLMBERG: Well, I think obviously we hope to do well this year and better than we did last year. I was a little bit disappointed last year with the finish, but the Colorcraft Gold Cup is always a very competitive event. So it's hard to know, it's hard to predict, to have a good result. It's going to be interesting.

I think maybe we were a little bit unlucky last year, getting to sail Russell Coutts and his team in the quarterfinals, which they sailed really well. I thought we were doing quite well, but not good enough against Russell and his team. So, we'll see this year. We are hoping to that have, you know -- being able to sail really well; otherwise not going to do a good result, but we look forward to the event very much.

Q: Peter, you have yet with win the America's Cup, but you have won the World Match Racing Conference three times. Tell us about the value to you of this kind of event, the Colorcraft Gold Cup in your preparation for the America's Cup?

PETER GILMOUR: Yes, I think the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour really does provide the opportunity to prepare to do the right thing that you would like to do, in an environment that is so similar to the America's Cup. You know, it has every element. It has very good sailors. You have to, obviously, sail the yachts well to get the best feed out of them and prepare well. I think there's no better sort of proving ground, breeding ground, for the America's Cup than to do well at this level.

Q: Let's go back to you, Magnus. Tell us for a minute about your preparations for the America's Cup and just a couple of words about where the Victory Syndicate is now and your future plans.

MH: Well, at the moment, we are actually packing up the base in France where we've been since March. We have done a lot of sailing down here. It's been very good experience. Pretty much the team has been full on since March. Prior to that there were I think about 10 or 12 people employed by the team. So, we've had a lot of sailing, a lot of quality training . . . a lot of good experience. Basically, we have a lot to learn, but it feels really good. After these few months, it feels like we are coming off on the right foot. So we are now packing up the base. It's all going on a ship and be shipped to Auckland, so we'll get started in Auckland first of November. And then we pretty much will be based in Auckland all the way up until the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup -- until we are finished sailing in the America's Cup.

Q: Peter, perhaps could you give us a few words on where OneWorld Challenge is in its preparations for the Cup?

PG: Well, similar to Magnus, we are heading down right at the moment for a third of October start in Auckland. So as soon as -- a few of them have left and a few of them are traveling as we speak. We will have USA 55, USA 51 there and continue sailing them down in Auckland. We've got a lot of design testing work still to do now, and over the next few months of the New Zealand summer.

We also hope early next year we will be starting to build the new boats and get them up and on line, and we'll take them to Auckland and obviously, you know, start campaigning with them. I guess, everybody in is in a very similar -- when I say everybody, most of the campaigns -- as I understand are very similar mode, whether the boats arrive in April or whether they arrive in say, June or something like that. The plans seem to be very similar from what I can see.

Q: Magnus, you have looked at the quality of the field coming here to Bermuda. Who are you eyeing as your main competition when you get down here in a couple of weeks?

MH: To be quite honest, I'm not quite sure about the -- what teams are going to be there this year. I know every year, it's always very tough competition in the event, and always, it's very, very hard to predict. I know that Peter and his team will be very, very strong and I'm sure there will be, you know, a lot of teams that are really eager to win the event and will be really tough competition.