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madforsailing Le Defi crewman Tim Kroger talks about life inside Le Defi Areva camp

Following the controversial attack of Greenpeace on FRA-69 at her launch, life is getting back to normal in the Le Defi Areva America's Cup campaign.

Central to the action at the syndicate's training camp in Lorient is German-turned-Frenchman Tim Kroger (the grinning gentleman to the right), who brought madfor sailing up to speed about how the French AC team is getting on.

"I've been with Le Defi since PlayStation fell apart two weeks into The Race," he said. "When I arrived back home I got the job proposal from Pierre Mas who I've known very well for a long time and they offered the job to me to be part of the sailing team and involved in the development and I thought it was a pretty good thing. At that time I was talking to two different Volvo Ocean race programmes. But the decision to do the AC had to be pretty quick. So around 25 February last year I arrived in Lorient to get residency here, get an apartment according to the rules - all by 1 March. Since then I've been French..."

Last summer was a tough time for the team as the head honchos within the campaign were fighting tooth and nail to raise the necessary financial to continue. Finally French nuclear power company Areva were signed up. "We only finalised the deal with Areva at the end of September, beginning of October. From then onwards it's been very good. We started building the boat at that time and everything developed from then pretty good."

For training the team chartered NZL-32, the winning Kiwi boat from 1995 and had FRA-46 from 2000. "And we have the perfect set up in Lorient, because with the support and help of the region of Lorient we've got the base there and it is fantastic site. We have 500sqm inside the submarine base. It is a building between two big old bunkers that were built in 1941 and 1942 by the Germans. So I arrived for free with the site, as the token German..."

Le Defi's base in Lorient is part of the city's plans to attract race boat campaigns and alongside Le Defi are two other hangars where the Foncia and Groupama 60ft trimaran teams are based. Elsewhere there is a division of mast maker Espace Composites and a company building cruising catamarans. Similarly Port la Foret has become a centre for the Figaro class (although some of the 60ft tris are also based there) and there is a proposal for starting a centre for Open 60s in St Nazaire, from where the Regate de Rubicon started recently.

"They have pulled down part of the silos. But to pull down a bunker like this take ages - it is a solid German structure and has lasted 50 years and will last another 50 years," Kroger says in his best Arnie Schwarzsenegger-as-Terminator voice. "They tried to cut a hole in one of the buildings there and it was block which weighed 50 tonnes - it was 3m by 5m and it cost FF100,000 to do - so they stopped putting windows in the bunkers!"

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