After 10 of 18 rounds Peter Holmberg still leads in his defense of his Congressional Cup regatta championship.
Holmberg's score of nine wins and one loss (to Paul Cayard) is trailed by Markus Wieser of Germany at 8-2, Cayard of the USA at 7½-2, and Luc Pillot of France at 7-3.
Conditions on the third day of racing remain light and chilly. Rain in the morning did not even bring wind along with it; the racing was delayed several hours until the wind built. The light air has made it very difficult to sail consistently with wind shifts and wind holes leading to dramatic gains and losses for competing sailors.
In one Tuesday race between Luc Pillot and Holmberg, a big lead by Pillot disappeared when Holmberg's boat sailed into better wind and managed to stick a bow inside of the French sailor at the leeward mark and sail ahead on the next beat.
An unusual move by the judges on Wednesday removed ½ point from Paul Cayard after a pre-start collision with Italy's Francesco de Angelis. Cayard was flagged for the penalty during the race, but stretched a lead enough to do his penalty turn and still win. The umpires took the ½ point off the win as a further penalty.
"I was shocked," he said in a Congressional Cup press release. "Two or three hours of sailing and nothing was said. Brady took out my stern pulpit [Tuesday] and didn't get an extra penalty, but he lost the race. I chip the gelcoat and get a half-point. It was like they were trying to get me."
This could be important later for Peter Holmberg, as Cayard is the only sailor to have defeated the Virgin Islander.
The Congressional Cup release had reported that Holmberg had "scuttled" his Team Caribbean to join Team Dennis Conner. This led to a interview between Holmberg and Rich Roberts of the Congressional Cup. In the interview Holmberg "took polite and proper issue with the connotation" that the Virgin Islands Cup Challenge was history.
Holmberg said, "We didn't shut it down. I'm still doing a lot of work in it, maybe more than before. All of our programs are still in place."
