Mr Match Racer - Magnus Holmberg

Bob Fisher spoke to the Swede shortly after winning the Swedish Match Tour.

madforsailing: So who have you got in your team?
MH: Mats Johannsen is the project leader and managing the team. He’s been a world class Star sailor for the last 20 years. With me is Jesper Bank who won the Soling Gold medal in Sydney. One third of the sailors are pure match racing sailors, one third are Olympic class sailors, and one third are young talented sailors between 20 and 25 years old. They are there for the future, the long-term team. We have a good mix in the team with Danes, Swedes, Finns and Norwegians.

madforsailing: So, in truth, the Swedish team is a Scandinavian team after all?

MH: We chose not to go out on to the international market to recruit sailors, we have stayed within Scandinavia, which in the long run could be a strength. I think that some of the teams will struggle with different nationalities. I don’t think it is easy to put together a team from a lot of different nationalities - Swedes, Danes, Finns and Norwegians are more like each other than if we would have Kiwis, Americans and Italians. Hopefully, we are building a team in which everyone pulls together.

madforsailing: The Victory syndicate is coming from which club?

MH: It is the Gamla Stans Yacht Club in Stockholm. It is where John Stenbeck, the owner, is from, so it has been a natural choice.

madforsailing: The boat is a Frers design, I understand?

MH: German Frers Junior is the designer and we are going to build two boats: the first one is starting build now and we will take that one with us to Auckland in November. In the meantime we have NZL-38, which was one of their boats in 1995, when they won the Cup, with which we are training. It is a very good boat, even if it is a few years old, but it would still be competitive.

madforsailing: Will you be taking that one to Auckland as well as your first new boat?

MH: Yes, so that we have two boats in Auckland.

madforsailing: When do you plan to have the second boat ready?

MH: The plan is that it will be ready in early May next year, but the plan is changing all the time.