Magnus Holmberg talks to Valencia Sailing

Magnus Holmber, skipper of Victory Challenge, is quite optimistic and confident about his team's ability to reach the goal of getting to the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals. Despite a number of hurdles encountered in the past, the Swedish challenger is going ahead at full speed with its new boat, SWE-96.

Valencia Sailing: After a three-year marathon we have reached the last kilometer. What goals do you have for Victory Challenge now that official racing is just hours away.
Magnus Homberg: It is exactly the same goal we had when we started, actually it was two years ago for us, that is to reach the semifinals of the Louis Vuitton Cup. We always knew it was going to be tough to achieve it and we have to work hard for that. We had some hiccups on the way but I think it is still relevant to aim at the semifinals.

Valencia Sailing: Would you consider it a failure if you don't reach the semifinals?
Magnus Homberg: First of all let me say that we already thought about that in the spring of 2005. We got our funding a short time before the Acts and by that time some teams had already spent time working and were sufficiently funded. We realized it was going to be a big challenge and on the way, as I said before, we encountered some hiccups. We weren't really fully funded until last fall. That meant that at some time we had to terminate the contracts of some employees, stop all the development, the construction of rigs, etc... It wasn't until last fall that we were able to be up and sail with two boats, do the proper preparation and testing and all that is needed to correctly run a campaign. It was tough at the beginning and last spring we reached a point where we seriously questioned whether we could reach the semifinals, because that was what we had initially agreed, otherwise it wouldn't be worth it. We realized it was going to be bloody tough and that there was a slight chance we could achieve it but we said, "let's go at it and go hard!".

Valencia Sailing: Do you also have a specific goal for Louis Vuitton Act 13, consolidate your bonus points or earn an additional one?
Magnus Homberg: Obviously our aim is to be competitive but we still have so much to learn and part of our strategy is to give our designers more time to work on the boat, due to the delays we previously had. As you know we took the risk to have the boat and rigs delivered very late. We still haven't had that much time on the boat and it still is a learning process for us and Act 13 will be part of that process. Of course, we will sail as hard as we can.

Magnus Holmberg at the heml of Järv. Valencia, 13 March 2007. Photo copyright Oskar Kihlborg/Victory Challenge

Valencia Sailing: Concerning your boat, Järv (SWE-96), what are your impressions? As you said, she was launched late, later than 97, 98 or even 99.
Magnus Homberg: We are happy with her performance, she is structurally sound, well balanced. You understand it would have been a great risk if we had any problems of that nature that late in the campaign. We are satisfied and we still believe and try to drive very hard, we still can learn a lot about her in different conditions, big waves, small waves, light air, heavy air, all possibilities. There is still a lot to be learned before we drive the boat at 100%. It is important to make sure we have enough hours with the boat, to make sure everything is reliable, winches, hydraulics, find out the weak points and correct them. You need sailing hours for all that. We are very confident but our strategy has been to take some big risks. We are still walking on a flat line, driving hard. So far so good, and if we can keep it up it will be really good.

Valencia Sailing: I have heard some contradictory rumors about your boat. Some people have commented it wasn't very competitive.
Magnus Homberg: Well, that's their comment. I'm fully confident.

Valencia Sailing: You have obviously trained against other challengers, smaller and bigger. How do you see your team and your new boat compared to the competition?
Magnus Homberg: As I said earlier, I still think there is room to increase our performance. We are still not consistent with Järv but as I said, so far so good. That's our feeling and we know how much we have progressed compared to our older boats.

Valencia Sailing: Let's talk about the human factor. Your team has hired around 20 sailors from a number of countries in the last months. How smooth has their integration been? Have you reached the desired level of teamwork?
Magnus Homberg: It works very well. I'm happy with the team we have recruited. Initially I was quite concerned, mainly because at the stage they incorporated our team, last summer. Don't forget we recruited almost a second boat of sailors but one of our strong points has always been our team spirit. We are a small team, an underdog but we have been able to pull out of all tough situations and gain strength. I was a little bit worried about it, we were extremely careful to recruit people that not only had the skills but also were team players. I think it paid off and we have a good, united team, without any internal problems we haven't been able to overcome.

Valencia Sailing: Part of your winter training strategy was to move to Dubai. Can you comment on that?
Magnus Homberg: It was extremely sufficient. Even if winter weather turned out to be much better than usual here in Valencia, we easily had 4 times more sailing in perfect breeze conditions. It was like summer in Valencia. Every day we had perfect conditions. We really needed that. Every team have their own strategy but for us it was to push the development and two-boat testing hard as much as we could . We needed a lot of racing conditions and I am sure if we hadn't gone to Dubai it would have been a much more difficult right now. Obviously, we took a big risk, because anything could have gone wrong and we would result in wasting a lot of money and time. The fact that all went well also strengthened the team.

Valencia Sailing: You trained there with your older boats. Was that a drawback?
Magnus Homberg: We made a call of late delivery and we were obviously aware of that. Of course it would have been excellent to train with the new boat but the two old boats were very even and that resulted in very good match races. That's probably also the experience of other teams where the newer boat is much faster than the older ones, making it difficult to carry out proper in-house match races.

Valencia Sailing: Have the recent unusual wind conditions in Valencia affected your boat development?
Magnus Homberg: Not really, but it could be tricky if these conditions prevail during the Louis Vuitton Cup because they are very rare. Almost 95% of the time we have been sailing here we had sea breeze conditions, unlike the current land breeze. All teams know well the summer conditions and the day we get land breeze it is going to be tricky.