Saturday night at the Blue Chip is a
special evening. It is the epitomy of what a suberb
yacht club and this great class of ours has to offer. The
prime rib dinner was as good as it gets, the setting for
socializing is just right, listening to the sailing exploits
of the mystery guest is entertaining and insightful, and of
course the traditional 'bar walk' by the boat in last place
is something everyone hangs around for. Jason Sutherland
and team did the honors and as tradition would have it, they
were only in thier underwear - all in good fun.
Race number five started in a light SE wind that had the
usual shafts of wind with good size shifts. The course was a
Windward leeward 4 1/2 with legs about 7 tens of a mile
long.
The first lap started out tough for regatta leader Tom
Burton who was over the starting line along with Bob
Biwer. Bob had almost the best start as he reached down
behind the boats lined up for the start and then jammed
it up in a gap just before the gun. However, his timing
was chosen for him by the circumstances and he ended up
a couple of seconds early. After the first upwind and
downwind (Lap-1) Lon Schoor got around first with the
luck of several small right shifts while staying just to
the right of the fleet up wind - a lucky first leg since
Lon was just below Bob on his early start and was left
sitting on the starting line while everyone else took
off. Next was Kevin Jewett who slipped by Peter
Holmberg (the mystery guest) downwind, followed by Jim
Gluek in 4th, PJ Friend in 5th,
and Augie Barkow in 6th. Note that Will
Graves was 10th and Tom Burton was 11th.
On Lap-2 it was Augie's turn as he moved up to second
after Kevin Jewett. Will Graves moved into 4th,
following Lon, while Peter Holmberg slipped to 6th,
just behind Paul Biwer. The unfortunate were Jim Gluek
dropping seven places, and Dick Wight dropping from 5th
to 12th, but Tom Burton moved up to 9th.
On Lap-3 the first four places didn't change: Kevin,
Augie, Lon, and Will. Will Hanckel was steadily passing
a boat here and there and was now in 5th.
Paul Biwer in 6th - Peter dropped a couple of
more and was in 9th. Dick Wight caught a
couple and was right behind Tom Burton who was now in 10th
place. On Lap-4 Will made a big move jibing away at the
weather mark and it was now Will in 1st,
Augie 2nd, Kevin 3rd, Lon 4th,
Peter 5th, and Dick with jumping up 5 places
to 6th, while Tom remained in 10th.
That changed the regatta leader to Dick Wight. Will
Hanckle's success was short lived, going from 5th
to 20th. Ouch! His 5th place was
taken over by Peter, and Jim Gluek made a nice recovery
going from 13th to 7th. On the
last leg of the race Dick had to keep 3 boats between
him and Tom to win the regatta and he did, finishing
with 27 points. The racing was tight and battles
important all the way to the finish for the next group
of boats because as you can see from the results there
were four boats tied for second with 29 points. Will's
win in the race put him in second for the regatta,
Augie's 2nd in the race gave him a 3rd
for the regatta. See the results below for the rest of
the details.
Last night a front moved through the
area and the rain was heavy at times. The winds were lighter
today in the 5-10mph range starting out the day from the WNW
and backing to the WSW. Sunny skies and temperatures in the
mid-seventies - a beautiful day in Pewaukee.
The first race had winds from the WNW
at 5-8mph and the course was a 3 1/2. It was Peter Friend
that got off hot and led around the first three marks before
fading to a sixth at second downwind in winds that were
again pretty shifty. It must have got him a little
mad because he came back strong and steadly moved up to
finish in first place. After 10th at the first mark, Lon
Schoor had a good downwind leg and stayed in the top four
positions for the rest of the race in a very close battle
with Peter, Kevin Jewett, Augie Barkow, Tom Burton, and Will
Graves. Lon ended up 2nd at the finish. Augie was third only
about 15 seconds behind the winner. Kevin was 4th, Will 5th,
and Jim Guelk, who was really up and down going from 3rd, to
1st, to 6th.
Pewuakee is one of the few places that
can really take advantage of a break for lunch between
races. I think it is a treat since more and more of our
regattas are sailed with back-to-back races. The pier can
easily hold the 20+ boats racing and the course is only a
few minutes away at most.
The second race was 0-7mph with big
shifts and big holes - the course was a 3 1/2. The fleet
spread out big time as Bob Biwer got off to a good lead at
the windward mark and held onto it for the entire race, but
probably not without getting a few more gray hairs - it was
that kind of day. PJ Friend, Lon Schoor and Tom Burton were
the last three boats around the first windward mark but
were 5th, 4th and 8th respectively at the next leeward mark.
It was Dick Wight chasing down Bob for the entire race and
he got close but not close enough - finishing the race in
second. Will Graves was exchanging positions with Dick in
the chase to catch Bob, but at the finish he was in 3rd. Tom
Burton got his second wind on the third upwind leg and moved
into 4th place and stayed there for the finish. Lon took a
gamble on the last leg and ended up in a hole and that
allowed Paul Biwer to finish in 5th and Lon was 6th. Peter
Holmberg, the mystery guest, was in 2rd at the first mark
after having one of the worst starts - his luck didn't hold
and he fell to 14th by the finish.
The first race was in SSW winds that slowly increased from
start to finish. It went from 7mph to a gusty 8-15mph at the
finish. Carl Horrorks got a jump on the fleet at the first
mark with Paul Bewer a close second, followed by Lon
Schoor, Tom Burton, and Peter Holmberg, this year's mystery
guest. (See more about Peter below). Tom and Peter stayed
on starboard and the others jibed away. It paid off for them
as they were first and second at the leeward mark. Jim Gleuk
worked his way back during the race going from 10th to 4th
at the finish. The winner was Tom Burton, who worked out to
a good lead, followed by Peter Holmberg in second, Carl
Horrocks 3rd, Jim Gluek 4th, and Lon Schoor in 5th.
The fleet went in for a typically good Pewaukee lunch, which
allowed the winds to build and move right a little. This
made for a better race course using more of the long part of
the lake. The winds were 15-20mph from the SW with gusts a
little higher. Augie Barkow found those conditions to his
liking and was first around. But with the strong gusts a
group of boats had a big downwind leg and Dick Wight lead at
the leeward mark followed by Tom Burton, Willie Graves,
Jim Gluek, Rick Turner, and Toby Sutherland. The big move on
the next two legs was by Mike Darrow, moving from 9th to
2nd, followed by Toby Sutherland, Tom Burtom, Rick Turner,
and Carl Horrocks. Dick stayed in the lead. On the move also
was Kevin Jewett - he was 14th at the first leeward mark,
moved to 8th on the next lap, and was 4th at the last
leeward mark and finish. There were several tip overs -
Peter Holmberg was in second place on the first downwind
when he turtled. Jim Gluek's good first lap was torpedoed on
his tip over, but he got it up and made a good recovery to
finish 10th. Augie made a recovery too after losing his
first place at the first mark and finished in second place
for the race.
After two races the top ten are:
1 M-9 Tom Burton
1 4 = 5 pts total
2 MA-10 Dick Wight
8 1 = 9
3 MA-14 Carl Horrocks
3 6 = 9
4 V-123 Kevin Jewett
9 3 = 12
5 V-37 Augie Barkow
12 2 = 14
6 X-751 Jim Gluek
4 10 = 14
7 V-39 Mike Darrow
6 8 = 14
8 GL-7 Tobby
Sutherland 10 7 = 17
9 V-777 Paul Biwer
7 12 = 19
10 V-74 Will Graves
15 5 = 20
Join NCESA Now
It is not too late to join the
National Class E-scow association. If you signup now for
your 2008 membership, you will also have a 2007 membership
for the remainder of the year. Your support is
important as well as your participation. A Regular
membership ($50) gives you the privilege to vote on class
issues, while the Associate membership ($15) gets you all
the class publications.
Peter Holmberg was born October 4, 1960 on St.
Thomas, Virgin Islands. He attended St.
Peter & Paul, Charlotte Amalie High School, and
the College of the Virgin Islands before
receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in
Business Management from Sonoma State University
in California.
(Parents Richard and Louise Holmberg, one older
brother John Holmberg)
(Married Denise Balzac of Puerto Rico in
December 2003)
Peter learned to sail at age five in St. Thomas
and began racing internationally at age nine.
After many years of training locally in the
Virgin Islands, Peter won the Silver Medal in
the Finn Class at the 1988 Olympics in
Korea. This is the first and only Olympic
Medal ever won by the Virgin Islands.
After winning the Olympic Medal, Peter began
racing as a professional sailor and has since
gone on to win numerous World and International
Championships. In 1992 Peter shifted his
focus to Match Racing and traveled the world
extensively with his small team of Virgin
Islanders, finally reaching the #1 ranking in
the World in 2002.
In March 1996, Peter formed the Virgin Islands
America's Cup Foundation. This was an
ambitious endeavor whose goal was not only to
challenge for the America's Cup, but to re-unite
Virgin Islanders with the water, promote water
sports and careers, improve race relations with
a national endeavor, and promote the Virgin
Islands as a tourist destination. The
Foundation raised over 4 million dollars, gained
international acclaim, and taught hundreds of
residents to swim and sail through its public VI
Marine Program. But unable to raise
the additional monies required to meet the
minimum budget, the syndicate merged with Team
Dennis Conner in January 1999. Peter
went on to race in the afterguard of Stars &
Stripes in the 2000 America's Cup Challenger
Selection Series where they finished third.
Peter then joined the Oracle BMW Team for the
2003 America's Cup where they finished second in
the Challenger Selection Series.
Following this, Peter
joined the winner of the 2003 America's Cup,
Team Alinghi from Switzerland, as one of the
helmsmen. After four years of training and
racing, Alinghi successfully defended the 32nd
America's Cup in July 2007 in the waters off
Valencia, Spain.
Peter is a past President of the Virgin Islands
Sailing Association and a past Commodore of the
St. Thomas Yacht Club. Peter is also the
recipient of the 2003 Paul Harris Fellow Award
and the 2003 St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of
Commerce Bill Lamotta Community Service Award.
Through his efforts of representing the Virgin
Islands around the world in sailing, Peter hopes
to encourage more Virgin Islanders to pursue
excellence in sports and better enjoy, utilize,
and respect the waters around them while also
promoting the culture and beauty of the Virgin
Islands to the world.
HIGHLIGHTS OF HOLMBERG'S RACING CAREER
2007 Winner, 32nd
America's Cup, Team Alinghi
2006 1st Place, Monsoon Cup Malaysia
2005 1st
Place Louis Vuitton Act 4, Team Alinghi
2004 1st
Place Louis Vuitton Act 3, Team Alinghi
2003 2nd
Place, Louis Vuitton Cup, Oracle-BMW Racing
2002 1st
Place, Match Racing World Tour
2001 1st
Place, Bermuda Gold Cup
2000 3rd
Place, Louis Vuitton Cup, Team Dennis Conner
1999 1st
Place, Congressional Cup
1998 1st
Place, Congressional Cup
1995 Silver Medal, Pan Am Games, J24
1990 1st
Place, Maxi World Championships
1989 1st
Place, International 50' Worlds
1988 Silver Medal, Olympic Games,
Finn Class
1987 1st
Place, International Rolex Regatta
1986 1st
Place, Antigua Sailing Week
1985, 1st
Place, Antigua Sailing Week
1984, 11th
Place, 1984 Olympic Games
1982, 7th
Place, Central American and Caribbean Games
