By Emily Purser
South Africa's Team Shosholoza are one of the first of the 2007 America's Cup challengers to accept an invitation to compete in the new Louis Vuitton Pacific Series regatta in Auckland, New Zealand in 2009.
The match will take place at the end of January. Captain Salvatore Sarno, Shosholoza founding managing director, said that the new Cup was "very, very important" as it would provide the opportunity to rekindle "the special spirit of Shosholoza, something which has no equal".
Louis Vuitton is not a new face on the sailing circuit: the company hosts the Louis Vuitton Cup, in which the official challenger for the America's Cup is decided. It is the winning team of this series of races which goes on to compete against the holder of the Cup. Team Shosholoza was the first team from Africa to take part in the America's Cup.
Coming seventh out of 11 competing teams, it was a turning point for South African sailing. Emirates Team New Zealand were the Louis Vuitton winners in 2007 and went on to face the reigning champion, Swiss team Alinghi, in what has been described as one of the closest America's Cup matches in history.
A spokesperson for Team Shosholoza said that Louis Vuitton had long been "very supportive" of the South African club. Sarno has suggested to the company that they consider a follow-up event, such as an Indian Ocean Cup, to be held in Durban next year.
This, he said, would be a "good occasion to give a test to South Africa", a year before the 2010 World Cup. He said an international sporting event such as this would qualm fears SA was not able to host such important occasions as the World Cup.