[Magnus Holmberg and Skip Lissiman during the departure on Orm. Photo: Jonas Hagströmer/Victory Challenge]

(2002-11-29, Auckland). It was announced in the morning briefing: there will be a change in the afterguard for the fourth match against Prada.
Magnus Holmberg comes in as helmsman and Harald Blom-Bakke will replace him as strategist.
Victory Challenge are preparing for a match that is their last chance – for the crew onboard Orm it’s a case of win or disappear.

The crew list includes changes elsewhere as well as in the afterguard.
The complete crew list for the fourth match looks like this:
Magnus Holmberg, helmsman
Stefan Rahm, tactician
Johan Barne, navigator
Harald Blom-Bakke, strategist
Kasper Vang, runner grind
Henrik Valderyd, mainsail trimmer
Oscar Angervall, traveller
Mikkel Røssberg, genoa trimmer
Oskar Ljung, spinnaker trimmer
Magnus Augustson, floater
Henrik Norberg, starboard grinder
Claus Olesen, port grinder
Henrik Blakskjær, pitman
Anders Dahlsjö, mastman
Martin Krite, midbow
Jonas Wackenhuth, bow
Project manager and skipper Mats Johansson made the announcement during the morning briefing at the Victory Challenge base at 85 Halsey Street:
“Magnus Holmberg is helmsman and Harald Blom-Bakke strategist”.
Magnus Holmberg has always been one of Victory Challenge’s two helmsmen. But he has only steered in one match in the first round and two matches in the quarter finals against Le Défi Areva. He has been strategist most times in the other matches, a position that has also been held by today’s strategist Harald Blom-Bakke and by Mats Johansson himself.
This is Victory Challenge’s last chance to score a win over Prada. The change comes after three straight defeats, with the third match turning into a terrible drama in which Orm led after the first beat.
Orm managed to give Prada a match to the very end, despite damage to the spinnaker pole and spinnaker and the fact that they picked up a penalty.
Despite all this, Prada, winners of the last Louis Vuitton Cup, only had a winning margin of 51 seconds.
If Victory Challenge win tonight Swedish time, they will need three more wins to go through. The battle for the last two semifinal places is sailed on a best-of-seven basis. The first team to record four wins advances. The loser is knocked out. Prada are 3-0 up.
In the battle for the other remaining semifinal place, OneWorld have had a much easier time against Team Dennis Conner, particularly yesterday. Like Prada, OneWorld just need the one win to go through.
The semi-finals start on 9 December. Alinghi and Oracle BMW Racing are already through.
Bert Willborg/Victory Challenge