I wouldn't exactly say Hans Georg was a wild man Tim.....he did what he wanted to do very well. It didn't always play out like he planned, but he did it with enthusiam. Hans was full of energy and told it like it was. When we were near Fort Worth, Texas I gave him a can of cold root beer because he was thirsty. I told him it was root beer, and he had apparently not known what root beer was....took a sip thinking it was some kind of Texas beer...then promptly spit it into the dirt. He said "It tastes like it came from a urinal!"

That's what I liked about Hans. He lived life to the fullest. When I spent some time with his son Peer at the World Championships in Florida the previous year, we laughed over some of the stories Hans told me. I didn't know Peer from when I raced in Germany. He was too young. But when I told him some of the stories from his Dad, he said he had heard them before, but he wasn't sure they were actually true. He confirmed some of the things Hans had told me back in 1993 that their family was going to get back some of the land that was confiscated in East Germany when the Russians took it over. Hans had a sailboat at his shop to sail in the North Sea near their old property.

Hans-Georg Krage was one of the most dedicated, focused, and most fun loving boat racers I ever met. I don't know how many stories about Hans-Georg might be out there...but I guess like Yogi Berra....some might be embellished by the reputation he had.