A sigh of relief for Tim Kröger, member of the French America's Cup team Le défi Areva. Greenpeace has announced that it will not take any action that could jeopardise the French team's performance on the water.
Greenpeace spokeswoman Bunny McDiarmid emphasised that although they wanted to be there, the protest was not aimed at the America's Cup or the French team, but solely at their sponsor, the nuclear power producer Areva. The company is 79 per cent owned by the French Atomic Energy Commission, which is also said to be responsible for the country's nuclear weapons programme and the nuclear tests in the Pacific.
This is the environmentalists' response to worldwide criticism of their work following the dinghy attack on the French boat in May of this year. Tim Kröger reported from Lorient at the time: "They crashed into our ship at over ten knots regardless of losses. We struggled to maintain our own standards of defensive behaviour.
You can imagine how 36 well-trained athletes look in a rage. We were incredibly angry with the Greenpeacers. This boat and this project are our lives, and an aggressive attack by self-proclaimed pacifists is difficult for us to understand and accept. Our syndicate leader Xavier de Lesquen is right when he says that these people don't even seem to heed their own guidelines for non-violent demonstrations.
The Greenpeace attack endangered people and equipment and ultimately also caused material damage. As far as we know, these incidents were carried out by twelve Greenpeace extremists who are also isolated within the organisation. It would be nice if that were the case, because otherwise we would have to lose all respect for the work of Greenpeace."
Tim Kröger has now arrived in Auckland with the team and has moved into the former "illbruck" base. The two new French ships are expected to arrive next week.
