Mark Sadler new skipper for Team Shosholoza

World champion SA yachtsman Geoff Meek, who has been plagued by knee and shoulder injuries since yacht Shosholoza hit a whale in Table Bay early last year, has stepped down as skipper of Team Shosholoza.

Team strategist, Mark Sadler, 30, a winning South African dinghy and big boat racing skipper who grew up in Benoni, Gauteng, is the new skipper. Team Shosholoza is South Africa - and Africa's - first ever America's Cup challenger in the 154 year history of the prestigous event.

Team Shosholoza has also announced the appointment of ace Californian yachtsman Dee Smith who joins the team as Team Manager, coach and tactictian. Smith, who is considered one of the world's top ranked grand prix skipper/tacticians brings over 40 years of yacht racing experience and a wealth of knowledge in a variety of classes including the America's Cup.

Geoff Meek (left) and Mark Sadler on yacht Shosholoza in Cape Town. Photo copyright: Team Shosholoza

Smith's appointment follows a short but successful contract with Team Shosholoza for the final two Louis Vuitton Acts of the America's Cup class racing season in Trapani, Sicily, last year when he was instrumental in bringing the team three match race wins and a startling (for a first timer to the America's Cup) fifth place overall in the fleet racing.

Team Shosholoza paid tribute to Meek with a standing ovation following the announcement in Cape Town yesterday.

"We have come a long way since our debut America's Cup precursor regatta in Marseille in 2004 when we were not sure if we would even get around the bouys. I am very proud of where we are today. I' ll be in Valencia for the racing and will keep in touch and motivate the team in areas where I can. I will always be rooting for you guys," said Meek. He said he would remain a director of the South African America's Cup Challenge and stay "very much part of the team" as a consultant.

Meek, 53, who grew up in Cape Town racing dinghies, was the alternate skipper for the British team in their pre-America's Cup trials in Freemantle in 1987. As a skipper and helmsman he has won many international big boat yacht racing championships including the Fastnet Race, Cowes Week, the Sydney Hobart Race, the SORC Race Week, Block Island Race Week, Sardinia Cup, the Southern Cross Cup, the Onion Patch regatta and the Maxi One Design event – Cowes Week.

He has won every major offshore regatta in South Africa and holds the record of 20 Table Bay Race Week championship titles. He has been South African Yachtsman of the Year five times, awarded SA Colours six times and the State President's Sports Merit Award.

Team managing director Captain Salvatore Sarno, thanked Meek for his commitment to the team over the past two years adding that without "Geoff Meek in South Africa" no-one would have believed in the country's maiden bid for the America's Cup. "I knew I had to get Geoff on board before I could announce the campaign and I thank you for this," said Capt Sarno.

New skipper Mark Sadler, said he was honoured by his new appointment and asked for his team's support in taking sailing to a new level in South Africa. "Competing in the America's Cup is a great opportunity for all of us but it is also provides the opportunity for developing young sailors in South Africa so that when we come back it will be to an improved sailing fraternity and yachting industry," said Sadler.

He said he was looking forward to a better 2006 America's Cup class racing season in Europe as South Africa's new campaign yacht Shosholoza RSA 83 was more race ready. The crew could also look forward to improving their skills with a line-up of top coaches.

Sadler was previously a sailmaker with North Sails for 10 years. He grew up sailing Optimists and other dinghy classes on the South African junior sailing cirucit and progressed to racing 40 footers at Royal Cape Yacht Club in Cape Town. He has won two Lipton Challenge Cup regattas, holds South African national championship titles in a number of one design keel boat classes and is the winner of numerous offshore distance races. He has sailed 10 world championships in different dinghy classes.

Californian Dee Smith joined the team in January in Valencia , the Spanish port city which will host the 2007 America's Cup. The team will start training early in March in Valencia for the first of the 2006 Louis Vuitton Acts - or precursor regattas - which start in May.

Smith, who was a member of the aftergaurd of the America True Challenge in the 2000 America's Cup in Auckland has an impressive racing CV with victories in every major yachting event in 14 oceans across the world. No stranger to South African yacht racing he was first to Rio de Janeiro as the rockstar skipper/tactician on Hasso Plattner's 80 foot maxi yacht Morning Glory in the last 2003 Cape to Rio race, along with winning overall in the 1993 race on the 50 footer Morning Glory.

Since then he has project and team managed the Morning Glory race yachts including the building of the famed MaxZ 86 which has won every race finished. Other major winning projects have included three Copa Del Rey's in a row as tactician, two consecutive Newport Bermuda Races as navigator and helping to co-ordinate the winning teams and skippering a boat in the 1997 and 1999 Admiral's Cup.

Smith said he was very happy to see South Africa 's first ever challenge in the 154 year old history of the America's Cup. "South Africa is a great yachting country and with all that has happened in the last 15 years it is a very positive step for the country. For me, personally, it is a great opportunity! It will be fun to work with Team Shosholoza and see what improvements can be made. Eyes wide open, I have no preconceived opinions of what can be done. I just hope I can fit in and help the team get better!"