Pros joins Shosholoza

Ex-Le Defi Areva and GBR Challenge sailors migrate to South Africa

Team Shosholoza will be given a major injection of America's Cup sailing and technical expertise following the arrival last week of a top German international yachtsman who has joined the team in a professional capacity.

Tim Kröger, who crewed on the French Le Defi Areva Challenge in the 2001-2003 America's Cup in Auckland and again in the opening Acts of the America's Cup in Europe last year has a star-studded CV developed over 25 years of international competitive sailing.

Kröger's appointment forms part of the 100 million Rand sponsorship investment in Team Shosholoza announced last month by T-Systems, an IT multi-national which is the business customer brand of Deutsche Telekom. The investment is one of the largest international investments in a South African sports team and certainly one of the biggest sponsorships in local sailing.

Kröger , said he was both honoured and excited to be part of the South African Challenge. "If I had had the choice to join an America's Cup campaign it would have been Team Shosholoza and I did in fact approach the team when they were in Valencia last year. It is a fantastic opportunity for me and the perfect vehicle for T-Systems. Team Shosholoza has a great team spirit and a wonderful open environment where everyone is pushing in the same direction."

Kröger said that in the ten days he had been with the team he had found the campaign "pretty far advanced". It was now only necessary to work on detail and refinement. "There are already a lot of strong people on the team, among them sailing manager Paul Standbridge, who has ensured that the team is on the right track. Everyone here takes the campaign very seriously. Being the new kid on the block can also be an advantage. It is sometimes easier, when one comes in with fresh ideas, to do well in an environment like this as opposed to when you have done the America's Cup three or four times. There is a lot of potential here.

"From my side I believe I can contribute quite a bit of expertise technologically, particularly with regards to the mast and rig, and in terms of developing the sailing programme. I have also met with the design team and seen the new racing yacht that is in the process of being built. I was very impressed and believe this yacht will give us a fair chance of being right up there in the next America's Cup pre-regattas scheduled for this year," said Kröger.

Highlights of Kröger's career include winning the Admiral's Cup in 1983 on the yacht Sabina, taking first place in the men's Soling ranking in 1988 and second place in the men's ranking for qualification to the Olympic Games. He was the Mumm 36 World Champion on Corum Watches in 1995. He was the first German sailor to have taken part in the three top international events in competitive sailing: the Admiral's Cup, the Whitbread Round the World Race and the America's Cup.

Kröger finished second in his first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1993/94 on Intrum Justitia and third in 1997/98 when racing on Swedish Match as watch leader.

He was crew on the maxi-catamaran Playstation for a number of transatlantic record attempts as well as in The Race - a non-stop round-the-world event.

More recently he was the watch leader and strategist for UCA (Germany's biggest racing yacht) in the DaimlerChrysler North Atlantic Challenge - the fastest yacht from Newport to Hamburg. He was also watch leader and strategist on UCA for various other regattas.

Last year he competed in his 10th Fastnet Race on the Open 60 Kingfisher ( Skandia for Life).

Team Shosholoza sailing manager Paul Standbridge has welcomed Kröger's presence in the team: "Tim and I sailed around the world together on Intrum Justitia in 1993/94 and we became firm friends on this epic voyage. He comes with a wealth of experience and knowledge and will be a big asset to our team," said Standbridge.

Standbridge said the team would be employing other professionals from previous America's Cups for short two week periods in the next two months to assist with coaching. They include two former British GBR Challenge professional international yachtsmen Julian Salter (navigator) and Mark Sheffield (midbowman). Sheffield has been in Cape Town since Friday last week.

The Team Shosholoza sailing crew now stands at a total of 25. Joe Heywood joined the team full time in November last year after the Team returned from Valencia. Durban sailor Camron Wills, Johan Spilhaus of Villiersdorp, near Cape Town and Capetonian Marc Economou joined the team in January this year. Ian Wolmarans of Cape Town and Shaun Pammenter, a Natal B rugby player, from Durban are the latest to join the team this month. The final two crew members still rallying for a position in the team and who are currently on trial are Reinhardt Rauscher of Boksburg and Moctar Fall, formerly of Senegal.