Holmberg gets the dream ticket

Peter Holmberg explains how he has come up trumps at Alinghi

A dream came true for St Thomas' finest, international match racer and former Oracle skipper Peter Holmberg, when after weeks of conjecture it was confirmed on Monday that he has joined Alinghi's afterguard to assist them in their defence of the America's Cup in 2007.

Speaking from the Alinghi base in Switzerland Holmberg told thedailysail that he had taken a pro-active approach to securing his new position. "When I finished the last Cup I identified what I wanted and I went after it. Those that I wanted to work with, I let them know that was my interest. I didn’t just sit around and wait. Alinghi is the dream team in my opinion. I studied them closely the last time and got to know them very well. So I decided to shoot for the very best.

"My criteria for joining the team was professional management, that was one thing I really looked at," he continues. "I wanted to be in an organisation that placed great value on running the operation professionally with proven business techniques, etc. That was critical for me. Then the people - I want to be involved with a group of people where it was team first, open, straightforward. These are lessons learned that I am going to take forward in my choices. Then the final one was the resources - these guys have done a brilliant job at satisfying their sponsors and getting the resources in place to do everything they need to next time."

With the Alinghi afterguard already including the old firm of Russell Coutts, Brad Butterworth, Warren Jones, Jochen Schueman and Ernesto Bertarelli, the prospects of getting on the race boat must be pretty slim even for someone with Holmberg's extensive credentials.

"Do I see a seat left to be taken? I am not worried about that," he says earnestly. "What I see is the opportunity to work with such an awesome group of people. I am not worried about the seat, that is not my concern."

Following the last Cup Coutts indicated that he wanted to have a stronger two boat campaign this time round. This will be particularly necessary in their new and more isolated role as defender rather than challenger. Acquiring Holmberg has been a step in this direction. "I am the helmsman and tactician added to the program to give us a pool of talent so that we can have some in-house scrimmaging that is fierce enough to ready us for when we go up against the best challenger that emerges. For me I have this great opportunity now to sail with this group that is the best in the world at present. Where I fit in - I’m not worried, It’ll work itself out in the long run."

Holmberg is obviously a helm in his own right and drove Oracle in the early stages of the last Louis Vuitton Cup prior to Chris Dickson stepping in and taking over the reins. His joining the team is not an indication that Coutts, in his new managerial role, plans to stand down as chief helm.

"Russell is still going to sail and is dedicated to focussing on sailing for this next go around, but what that final team is we won’t know until the day and it will be a fun process of seeing what the best combination is. I think they demonstrated that last time when you saw lots of movement among the people on board. It is a team-oriented organisation. They are pretty open to whatever is the best combination and that is a happy situation for me to enter into."

With Coutts and his posse running the A boat, Holmberg in training will drive the B boat, although apparently it is not referred to in this way. "I don’t think they have names on them…" he laughs. "There’ll be two boats out there and I will be one of the helmsmen and there will be lots of rotation and yes, we all want to compete on the day, but I am looking at years of involvement with a great group of sailors. For seven races, if you mug is on TV - that is not what it is all about. Saying that - I have got confidence in my skills that I’ll be hitting balls at the end."

Under the new Protocol for the next America's Cup there is no need for Holmberg to leave his base in St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands and pretend to move to Switzerland. "No I don’t think I’ll have to move here but from the looks outside the window, I don’t mind visiting. It looks nice but there is no requirement to move here. We don’t have a training base here. The designers will operate here a lot, but myself I think there will be occasional trips here to convene, but most likely we will convene at the site of regattas we go to and do training sessions.

"Until the site gets named and the scheduce from ACM gets defined, we are all encouraged to live our lives, enjoy a little bit of time off, racing, sharpen your tools on your own and then we will start convening for sessions and doing regattas together and eventually go full time, but that is not defined yet.until we know the schedule."

The exact schedule for the ACC class in 2004 has yet to be announced, but is expected to include an Alinghi-organised regatta in Newport in the summer, followed by possibly as many as three events in the autumn in Europe, at least one of which will be at the newly announced venue. "I guess Newport will be the first occasion when the whole squad will reconvene again. There might be some match racing we might do as units, but the first AC sailing will most likely be in Newport."

Within the Alinghi management Jochen Schueman has a similar role as last time - sailing team director, in charge of managing the sailing team and it's schedule. However with Michel Bonnefous now heading America's Cup Management, Coutts seems to have taken over the principle management role within Alinghi.

"Russell’s role here early on, I believe, is more the setting up the infrastructure and getting the team right," explains Holmberg. "He’ll have a say in the personnel of course, and then once the sailing starts you’ll see him switching gear pretty quickly into the full sailing role. Right now with his expertise he’s playing much more of a role in the big decision-making. He is securing the resources with the sponsors and the personnel aspect, he is playing a key role in that decision too, early on, making sure he has the right people in place."

Holmberg's first impressions of being part of the Alinghi team have been "a fresh of air". Working for a European team, rather than a US-based one is also a change for him. "It has a more European flavour and it feels more worldly too. It is a new culture they have developed of their own here. It is pretty interesting and exciting."

Before the sailing team gets going next year, Holmberg plans to spend some quality time back in the Caribbean. "It is a time to live at home and get into my community. I just got nominated last week to be Commodore St Thomas YC, so it is a nice time to be at home and help out your local club and do a little local sailing." In St Thomas he races in the local fleet of IC24s - the locally modified version of the J/24. Holmberg also plans to introduce more match racing to his club.

Aside from this he is doing next season's regattas in Florida and the Caribbean aboard the newly launched Reichel-Pugh 75 sled, Titan. "Then I’ll do a little bit of coaching for Peter Bromby’s Olympic project in the Star. So that is another little project I’ll slip in there between building a house and getting married!"