Crew Profiling on Magnus Holmberg’s Sigma Racing Team

Marstrand, Sweden – 9 July, 2010 – Magnus Holmberg squeezed his way into the quarter finals yesterday with one of the youngest crews on the Tour.  The Swede is a 16 year veteran of Marstrand and has chosen to race this week with young Kiwis, both virgins to this highly testing archipelago and two Swedes with inside local knowledge.

For Stena Match Cup Sweden the legendary helm is racing with Gareth Ellingham (NZL), Martin Berntsson (SWE), Sam Bell (NZL) and Oskar Ljung (SWE).  Berntsson is standing in for James Williamson on the bow at Stage 5 due to a car crash on route from Portimão Portugal Match Cup to Sweden which saw the youngest crew member at 22 years old end up with a broken collar bone hindering any chance of him racing the demanding DS37 boats this week.

Ellingham, Williamson and Bell already have a strong team dynamic as they are also members of ‘Waka Racing’ with Phil Robertson (NZL) skippering them in a range of global match racing events.  These three ambitious crews are all graduates of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and follow in the footsteps of a raft of top grade racers who have developed through this similar and successful match race training model.

Ellingham, an engineering graduate, rides next to Holmberg controlling the main sail and provides additional tactical input to the skipper.  Ljung is trimming the genoa and spinnaker in front of Ellingham who Holmberg only met on the training day of Stena Match Cup Sweden.  Bell, the 26 year old standing next to Ljung, started out originally in the sport of rugby psychically lending him to being a match racing pit man and Martin Berntsson the Swedish bowman who already has experience of racing with both Holmberg and Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing finishes the line up on the bow for Stage 5 of the Tour.

2010 is a turning point for the younger members of the Sigma Racing Team crews’ careers as they get to race with the ‘godfather of the World Match Racing Tour’ who is one of the most persistent campaigners ever in the international match racing world as well as having represented Sweden three times at the Olympic Games. The next generation of energetic and inquisitive racers is coming through the Tour’s training grounds learning straight from the master of match racing and giving other seasoned crews a good run for their prize money.