Johannesburg - The South African flag will once again fly high at the next edition of the world's premier sailing event, the America's Cup, following the lodging of a second challenge in Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday.

Team Shosholoza founder and managing director Captain Salvatore Sarno confirmed by telephone on Wednesday that he had personally lodged a Notice of Entry and submitted the required performance bond and necessary certification with the Swiss Societe Nautique Geneve (SNG), the defending yacht club of the 2007 America's Cup winners Team Alinghi.

Speaking with the same characteristic passion and commitment as he did four years ago when he lodged Africa's first ever challenge for the America's Cup, Captain Sarno confirmed that Cape Town's Royal Cape Yacht Club would again be the South African challenge club.

As in 2004 his bold move comes with no signed sponsor to back his ambitious vision of pursuing a second South African campaign.

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Shosholoza will be back for the next America's Cup whether it is in Europe or New Zealand, the head of the South African syndicate said on Saturday.

Shosholoza was the team everybody loved to love in Valencia, a group mostly made up of South Africans of all races who invited everybody into their base to join "One team, one nation, one dream".

After a shaky start, Africa's first America's Cup crew proved themselves to be far more than a novelty one Cup wonder, quickly climbing through the ranks, beating big, established teams, and ending the Louis Vuitton Cup seventh.

"South Africa will be a challenger in the next America's Cup," team leader Salvatore Sarno said.

"I'm a bit worried about what I'm saying because it means starting again, not sleeping during the nights again but we have created a symbol that is Shosholoza and I want to continue to show this South Africa."

When Sarno set up the team, he had difficulty signing up sponsors because many companies saw sailing as an elitist sport -- not the ideal image for post-apartheid South Africa.

But Shosholoza quickly won the hearts of the people and the press and was voted the favourite sports team in a country better known for its cricket and rugby.

"In the past we couldn't live together, work together or play together. Shosholoza at one stroke has presented a different image to the world, what we want to become" said team patron Archbishop Desmond Tutu, fondly nicknamed "Arch".

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Somewhere over the proverbial rainbow, a passion for yachting is stirring in the South African soul, or so Ian Ainslie hopes after Team Shosholoza's battling showing at the Louis Vuitton Cup.

The syndicate, formed just four years ago, may not have made it to the semifinals and, with a budget of just €25-million coming in at barely a quarter of big-leaguers such as BMW Oracle Racing, that was to be expected.

But a thrilling win by just six seconds over Italians Mascalzone on Sunday leaves Ainslie and company in with a good chance of finishing just out of the qualifiers after living up to skipper Salvatore Sarno's pre-race description of a boat and crew who represent the "soul of sailing".

True, Mascalzone were saddled with an early penalty for straying too close in the pre-start, before poor tacking and overspin at the finish line gave Shosholoza their third win in second round robin competition.

But tactician and helmsman Ainslie insisted that the goal of establishing the syndicate's credibility had been met, even f too many points had gone begging.

"We could have done better. We've lost a lot of races which could have gone our way," admitted the one-time maths student from the University of Natal.

"But if we win our last two races we have a chance to come in in sixth spot, which would be great for us," Ainslie said, looking forward to Monday's challenge against Italians +39 Challenge, whose compatriots Mascalzone are just two points ahead of the African boat.

"Overall we are happy with our progress. This year we have been battling with our gybes a bit," added Ainslie, who told Agence France-Presse that slowly but surely the team's exploits were filtering through to the South African public.

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Team Shosholoza's dream of a place in the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals faded on Saturday with a loss against the Spanish home team Desafio Espanol, but the team will be going all out to win their remaining three matches to end in an honourable position on the leaderboard.

"We are not yet dead. We are still alive and we must still be there. We have three more races to go and Areva (French challengers) are very close," said captain Salvatore Sarno, team founder and managing director.

"We can still fight. For us to have started as newcomers at the bottom of the leaderboard and come so far is incredible. We are still fighting and we will continue as we have been doing for three and a half years. We are not defeated. We are doing this for the next campaign. We will finish the Louis Vuitton honourably," he said.

Captain Sarno said Saturday should be remembered as the start of a new two boat challenge for South Africa.

"Most probably Alinghi (Cup Defenders) will win again and if they do, it is not final, but 99% sure, that the next Cup will be in Valencia. If this is the case I hope that we will be able to launch RSA 101 by February next year and have it ready for the first Acts in May. My plan is that we have a two boat programme and if we can do that we can win the America's Cup."

It was an aggressive pre-start for Team Shosholoza who met the Spanish in Flight 7 of Round Robin 2 of the Louis Vuitton Cup on Saturday. Shosholoza led off the start line by one second and the two boats fought all the way up the first beat in a tight duel for supremacy.

Sailing conditions were perfect with warm sunshine, flat seas and 10 knot breezes and despite a luff attempt by the Spanish in the approach to the mark it was the South Africans who were first around the windward mark by just five seconds.

The two boats hoisted spinnaker and the chase was on with the South Africans enjoying a two boat lead. But a poor first gybe by Shosholoza was what lost the South Africans the match.

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Team Shosholoza has recorded two more points on the Louis Vuitton leader board after a resounding win over Team China as the South Africans continue to give all they can to make the semi-final cut when racing ends on Wednesday next week.

Sandra Sarno, wife of Team Shosholoza managing director captain Salvatore Sarno, was on board as "18th man". The team have never lost a match to China with her on board and the superstitious captain always insists she takes the coveted non-sailing position on the boat each time the two teams face each other.

Emirates Team New Zealand moved closer to second by following up a win over fourth-place Desafio Espanol with a victory against Shosholoza on the southern "Juliet" course.

The Kiwis held the advantage against the Spanish despite an even start, winning a tacking-duel up the first leg on starboard, where the wind was stronger, then held the course for the victory.

Emirates Team New Zealand improved to 28 points. The Spanish team, which beat China Team in the seventh flight, stays on 23.

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Team Shosholoza recorded two more points on the Louis Vuitton leader board Friday after a resounding win over Team China as the South Africans continue to give all they can to make the semifinal cut when racing ends next Wednesday.

A tense pre-start dial-up saw the Chinese over the line at the start giving the South Africans the chance to pull out an early lead as the Chinese returned to re-start.

The South Africans continued to extend as they ripped around the course posting a one minute 30 second delta at the first windward mark and gained more on each leg to post a winning delta of two minutes one second on China as they victoriously swept across the finish line.

Sandra Sarno, wife of Team Shosholoza captain Salvatore Sarno, was on board as "18th man".

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The South Africans lost two difficult races against the joint leaders of the Louis Vuitton Cup on Wednesday, one of their toughest days yet.

BMW Oracle and Luna Rossa are sitting at the top of the leader board and are virtually certain to go through to the semifinals. Behind them is Emirates Team New Zealand.

Shosholoza is competing for the fourth spot, but is short on points compared with three other mid-table teams.

In their first and extremely tense race, against top challenger and United States giant BMW Oracle, the South Africans held the lead more than half the way. As it did a week ago, Oracle came back on the second upwind leg to eat away Shosholoza's advantage and round the windward mark in the lead.

In its second race, Shosholoza was outpaced in light, consistent airs by Italian team Luna Rossa, who had their revenge after a surprise loss against the South Africans a week ago.

Racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup resumed with a vengeance on Wednesday after a too-strong wind prompted the race committee to abandon racing the day before.

This is the final contest to determine which of the 11 challenging teams goes through to sail against the holder of the America's Cup, the Swiss team Alinghi, in the final America's Cup match races later this year.

The Louis Vuitton Cup contest comprises match races pitting two boats at a time against each other and the points earned are counted towards a semifinal, from which the final challenger will emerge.

Whether Team Shosholoza will realise their dream of a semifinal berth can be determined only nearer the end of this, the second round robin, of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

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Team Shosholoza's race against BMW Oracle this week still has tongues wagging around Valencia, as the South Africans have so far come closest of all the lesser teams to beating the Americans in a straight race.

The race, on Wednesday, was voted one of the best of the Louis Vuitton Cup so far by a prominent television channel.

Shosholoza led the so-called "mean machine" from the US around the first lap and only when the South Africans chose to tack away to the right of the course, while Oracle continued on the left, did the Americans get away.

Racing on Thursday was abandoned after a cold front hit Valencia in the morning, leaving the sea swept by wind too shifty to allow courses to be set, while thunder and lightning threatened the safety of the men on their carbon boats with carbon masts.

The Mediterranean is the scene where 11 America's Cup challengers are fighting it out in the Louis Vuitton Cup for the right to be the last one standing to take on current America's Cup defenders Alinghi of Switzerland.

In a second race on Wednesday the South Africans had a consistently close race against Italian team Luna Rossa, losing by a mere 20 seconds.

"We lost by a wind shift to Oracle and we lost to the Italians because our morale was down after our loss to the Americans," said Shosholoza managing director Salvatore Sarno.

"An America's Cup class yacht is like a Formula One car, but the difference is that the piston of an America's Cup yacht is made of men and not steel. You give more or less depending on how you are feeling psychologically or physiologically," he said.

"They are both top, top teams. Each race was so very close but at the end it is the experience that makes the difference. I am sure the result might have been different if we had sailed each team on separate days," said Sarno.

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South Africa's Team Shosholoza were back in the hunt again on Monday for a place in the semifinals after a clean, no-mistake start to finish victory over United Internet Team Germany in rising 12- to 15-knot breezes that saw plenty of action and drama among the other boats on the racecourse.

"What is significant is that we have been first to the windward mark in nine out of the 12 races sailed so far," said captain Salvatore Sarno, founder and team MD. "That is an incredible 75% record.

"We have had some bad luck with tricky wind shifts, shredded spinnakers and a broken spinnaker pole. Without these misfortunes we would have been sitting comfortably in the top four on the same level as Spain and ahead of Mascalzone and Sweden's Victory Challenge."

Team Shosholoza are tied for sixth place with Italy's Mascalzone Latino Capitalia after two flights of races in round-robin two of the Louis Vuitton Cup. Sharing the top of the leader board so far are the United States's BMW Oracle Racing and Italy's Luna Rossa Challenge, followed by Emirates Team New Zealand (third), Spain's Desafio Espanol (fourth) and Sweden's Victory Challenge (fifth).

The win over Germany was a reassuring confidence booster for the South Africans after their bitter loss on Sunday when a broken spinnaker pole lost them a crucial race to Sweden's Victory Challenge despite building a solid lead that they had held for three of the four legs of the race.

"It was a good day in that the boys made the German win look easy. We know it isn't, but they did and they were good at it," said sailing manager Paul Standbridge.

Once again it was a must-win match for Team Shosholoza, who were first to get away off the start line after a modest pre-start tussle that saw the two boats stall head to wind and then bear away into the classic circling position of the dial-up.

The Germans tried to push the South Africans up on the line, but Shosholoza got away to the right to immediately pull out a boat length. The German navigator was scanning RSA 83 with his special binoculars, which contain a built-in range finder, while Shosholoza's Marc Lagesse had his laser gun out shooting for distance on the Germans as the South Africans continued to extend up the beat to swing around the first windward mark with a handsome, 28-second lead.

Shosholoza quickly pulled out a 154m advantage on the downwind run, stretching it to 207m at times while flying an asymmetrical spinnaker. The South Africans shot through the leeward gate 33 seconds ahead of the Germans and streaked off up the beat to port.

Once again they took advantage of stronger winds to the right to pull out leads confidently of more than 300m before triumphantly rounding the second windward mark more than a minute ahead.

The Germans were no obvious threat and Shosholoza RSA 83's spinnaker was hoisted in a flourish for the final run to the finish. Shosholoza crossed the finish line first,

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A broken spinnaker pole on the Shosholoza boat allowed Victory Challenge to close on the leading four at the start of the second set of round robins in the Luis Vuitton Cup on Sunday.

A lack of wind delayed the start of racing for a couple of hours but when it got under way the showdown between the Swedes and the South Africans provided the entertainment.

The two boats jockeyed for the lead in the early stages until Shosholoza edged ahead. But they broke a spinnaker pole near the leeward gate leaving them short of power for the final leg.

The Swedes, who had trailed by 16 seconds at the last turn, gradually overhauled their rivals in the home strait to win by 52 seconds.

The two points put them up to fifth in the standings on 16 and kept them in the hunt for a semifinal place.

A frustrated Shosholoza stay seventh with 12 points.

"It's so disappointing, you can't imagine. It was all going so well, we were fast and good. And once again we had a material problem," said Shosholoza skipper Mark Sadler.

"When it happened I thought 'oh no, not again!' We have to keep going of course, but this is really hard to digest."

The day's other two races saw relatively straightforward wins for leaders BMW Oracle over United Internet Team Germany and second-placed Luna Rossa over China Team.

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