Alinghi's Peter Holmberg talks to Val Doan
The Caribbean’s own Peter Holmberg has had an extremely busy year and has proved his worth to Alinghi many times over.
The lead up to the America’s Cup is in a race format called Acts which are raced in the Cup boats in a fleet race format. This is very exciting to watch because there is so much more going on than in a two-boat match race. As you can see from the results, Alinghi dominated at all the events with Team New Zealand, Oracle, and Luna Rosa battling it out for top spots. Peter shared helming duties with Jochen Schuemann and Ed Baird.
Act 4 Valencia, Spain 1st Holmberg helmed
Act 5 Valencia, Spain 2nd Holmberg helmed
Act 6 Malmo-Skane, Sweden 1st Schuemann helmed
Act 7 Malmo-Skane, Sweden 1st Schuemann helmed
Act 8 Trapani, Italy 1st Baird helmed
Act 9 Trapani, Italy 1st Baird helmed
What were the highlights of this year’s events?
“Winning Act 4 was huge for us. It was the first event of this new cup cycle that we put our full effort into. The design team optimized the boat and sails to version 5.0 of the rule and we did a fair amount of two-boat testing, making some mode changes to the boat. Plus, we did some race practice. So to win against some strong challengers who had also fully prepared gives us great satisfaction that we outperformed the competition in this first test.”
Was the announcement of Brad Butterworth as Alinghi's skipper expected? Does it make any difference to how you or the team was operating
“No surprise at all. Brad is our most senior member and had already been performing this role in the team. It is a nice reward for Brad and he deserves the honor and title. It also better reflects the current roles and positions on board race boats these days, where the driver is one of the specialist positions, and not necessarily the skipper.”
Brad seems like a cool operator under pressure. Does it reflect on how the team operates as a whole?
“Yes, Brad is a low-key person, which is a nice attribute in this sport. This is also a team of true professionals with heaps of experience, so what you see is mostly a class act. Whenever you have that depth of talent, you tend to operate in the ‘cool’ mode. It’s the same in all sports. You prepare and train properly and you tend to be relaxed and in control when the heat gets turned on.”
Are you happy with how your team is shaping up, or are there issues to resolve?
“We are very happy as a team to be where we are. But we know that we have to continue making forward progress to stay ahead of the field, so we must keep pushing ourselves very hard.”
Q What are your thoughts on doing the Acts as a lead up to the AC-does it enhance the training process, getting to know the competition and keep the whole program interesting or does it distract from focusing on the final event?
“There are pros and cons with everything, but in general the Acts have proven to be a huge success. They keep the Cup alive and active in the years between events. They give the sponsors six events per year, rather than one big one at the end. The defender and the challengers get a chance to guage themselves, to have some real racing, and the smaller teams get help improving. We as the defender get to play with the others rather than being isolated as in the past. The main difficulty for us is that we have a lot of down-time with one of our boats being on the road for a few months, so we need to better schedule the Acts so that we can also do our critical testing in the good weather months.”
How is it working out personally sharing the helm with Ed Baird and Jochen Shuemann
“We are very happy with our program of having three drivers. The three of us get along well and buy into the concept of honest and healthy competition. We actively rotate, which allows us to see more of the other roles and the bigger picture than when we are driving. In addition, when we are not driving we play the strategist and tactical roles onboard which again gives us another perspective and great cross-training to better our driving skills. It also allows us to continue our two-boat testing program if one of us is away or at a match race event.
Our goat is to grow the talent within the team so that we can make the most of our two-boat testing and racing. To achieve this, we mix the crew around, pair the veteran sailors with the less experienced and rotate crew in the acts. It worked well for us this year and we will review everything at the end of the season and set our goals for the two years ahead.”
Do you think the rule banning departing crew from joining another team fair?
“Yes, I think there needs to be some restraint on players moving to other teams, just like in other sports. To protect the sponsors, protect the intellectual properties of each team, to not confuse the public and to prevent bidding wars, there should be these restraints.
I don’t think it’s good for the individuals or the teams for crew to hop around from team to team. What does it say about your decision-making process and your commitment if you change teams often and mid-stream?”
Would you like to see an International Match Race event come to the BVI? What advantages to potential sponsors and the community would come out of holding this event in Tortola?
“Having an international match race in the Virgin Islands would be great for everyone – the sponsors, the community, the sport, tourism etc. It is different to our annual fleet events (BVI Spring Regatta etc). Because it can be brought close to shore for spectator viewing, it is easy to follow by the general public with only two opponents racing at one time and it is more marketable on television. Our VI Match Race in the late 1990s was a huge success on all these fronts. It just takes a sponsor and an organizer to make it happen.”
Final thoughts from Peter about the whole experience
“Living in Spain has been culturally different and challenging. It has been great to step out of my comfort zone and enjoy life in general, although both Denise and I are missing our Caribbean home and of course family and friends.”
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