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Holmberg hasn't sailed for a month, having suffered a broken collar bone, so he's starting right back at the deep end.

"I'm a little anxious," he admitted, "I've been side-lined with this injury, and I'm going from plaster cast, to sling and straight back to sailing, I've been studying, so I'm mentally prepared, but I may be a bit behind physically."

Peter is currently in second place on the Swedish Match Tour leaderboard, behind Sweden's Magnus Holmberg, and is intent on catching last year's Tour winner before the last event of this year's circuit, the ACI Cup in Croatia at the end of May.

Doing match racing regattas will be part of Peter Holmberg's regime for returning to full physical fitness, and he plans to do as many as he can before preparations for the America's Cup take over his time completely.

Although anxious, Peter Holmberg is also looking forward to getting back into action, "I've got my favourite guys with me, and we're keen to get going," he enthused.

This is probably the hottest line-up the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron has ever attracted in the 23 years they have been running this event, with eight America's Cup team represented.

Harold Bennett, the race director of the Steinlager/Line 7 commented, "when you get a line-up of top guys like this, there is going to be some very hot competition, and some aggressive racing."

The twelve skippers contesting this event will sail a single round robin, before the top eight progress to the quarter finals, followed by semi-finals, with the finals scheduled for Sunday 24th March.

Skippers:-

Magnus Holmberg - Sweden, Victory Challenge
Peter Holmberg - U.S.A., Oracle Challenge
Jes Gram-Hansen - Denmark
Dean Barker - New Zealand, Team New Zealand
Luc Pillot - France, Le Defi Areva
Gavin Brady - Italy, Prada Challenge
Rod Davis - Italy, Prada Challenge
Ken Read - U.S.A., Team Dennis Conner
Ed Baird - U.S.A.
Andy Green - Britain, GBR Challenge
Paolo Cian - Italy, Mascalzone Latino Challenge.
Ian Walker - Britain, GBR Challenge