Transatlantic: Boris Herrmann brings Greta Thunberg to the UN Climate Summit

It's a minor sensation that the 16-year-old Swede announced on her social media channels this morning. Greta Thunberg is hiring Boris Herrmann's "Malizia" to travel from Europe to the USA in a climate-neutral way.

The boat with which the Hamburg native will be competing in the Rolex Fastnet Race from Saturday and the "Vendée Globe" in a year's time is anything but a cruising yacht: "Malizia" is a racer optimised to the point of ruthlessness.

The Imoca 60 with hydrofoils is currently one of the most modern and efficient monohull yachts in the world. Designed for solo operation, it offers hardly any space below deck and zero comfort - a narrow, bare, gloomy carbon cave, criss-crossed by a knee-high framework of stringers and frames.

There are only two cane bunks, no toilet and no water tank. The only galley available is a tiny gas cooker from the expedition equipment. At speeds of 15 knots and above, you can barely understand your own words below deck, and at 20 knots and above it becomes infernal. And the bumps and jolts in the swell can knock you off your feet without warning.

But that doesn't seem to scare Greta Thunberg.

In mid-August, she wants to cross the North Atlantic on this very boat, accompanied by her father and a photographer. A bold plan. Apart from Boris Herrmann, there will only be one other sailor on board, co-skipper Pierre Casiraghi, the son of Princess Caroline of Monaco and team leader of the "Malizia" syndicate.

Six weeks ago, on 17 June, Greta Thunberg announced that she would accept the invitation to the United Nations Climate Summit in New York in September. The figurehead of the now global student movement "Fridays for Future" wrote on Facebook at the time:

"The tricky thing is that (the date, the ed.) is on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. There are no trains that go there. And because I don't fly due to the huge climate impact of aviation, it's going to be a challenge. I don't really have a solution yet. But I'm sure I'll get there somehow. We will all have to do the impossible."

Shortly after this news, the organisation received dozens of proposals from sailors, including private owners, institutions and several deep-sea syndicates offering ships and crew. Even skippers of Ultime-class maxi-trimarans, which can complete an east-west passage of the North Atlantic in less than a week, are said to have signalled their willingness.

There are several reasons why Boris Herrmann, Pierre Casiraghi and their "Malizia", supported by the Yacht Club de Monaco, ended up taking part. One of them, and probably not the least important, is that the Open 60 is 100 per cent independent of fossil fuels following the refit last winter.

It still has a small diesel engine on board as an auxiliary drive, which is required by the class rules for safety reasons. However, it is powered by more than a dozen state-of-the-art solar cells from Solbian and, if necessary, by two lowerable hydrogen generators at the stern. If a dinghy with an electric drive is used for docking and undocking, which is planned, "Malizia" can cover the approximately 3,000 nautical miles from Europe to New York without using a single drop of fuel.

But there's more: Boris Herrmann has long had a heightened awareness of climate change. The 37-year-old experienced the consequences of global warming first-hand during his record-breaking voyage through the Northeast Passage in 2015. This is one of the reasons why he was the first Imoca skipper to have a measuring device installed that constantly takes water samples and transmits the values via satellite to the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg and Geomar in Kiel. The data helps to record the warming of the atmosphere and the acidification of the oceans by CO2, even in areas that are rarely visited by research vessels.

For the past year, Herrmann has been trying to communicate the importance of the oceans for the global climate in a different, playful way - as part of the "MyOceanChallenge" school programme developed by his partner Birte Lorenzen. In the first year, 4,500 children worldwide took part in the programme, many as part of specially initiated school projects. Lorenzen and Herrmann received the Ocean Tribute Award for their work at boot Düsseldorf in January.

It was not least this commitment that ultimately made Greta Thunberg, herself a student until a few weeks ago, decide to put herself in the hands of Boris Herrmann and Pierre Casiraghi for her trip to New York.

Of course, it won't be a walk in the park, even at the height of summer. The North Atlantic is too capricious for that and "Malizia" is too uncompromisingly trimmed for speed. It will be more of a ten to twelve-day borderline experience.

On the other hand, the young Swede, who became the most recognised and respected teenager in the world with her "Skolstrejk", is underlining her determination. It is almost certain to be the race of the decade for sailing. At best, Boris Herrmann's victory in the Vendée Globe could come close to the public attention he will receive from now on.

"A race we must win", reads a UN report on global warming and its foreseeable catastrophic consequences - "a race we must win". Boris Herrmann has had the same message printed on the sails of "Malizia". A fitting motto for his campaign - and for the upcoming Greta-Thunberg-Transat.

Here is the official press release from Boris Herrmann and Team Malizia with more details about the trip and quotes

Climate activist Greta Thunberg will sail from Europe to North America in mid-August to start a climate tour in America lasting several months. The 16-year-old Swede will be using the completely emission-free ocean-going yacht "Malizia", skippered by Boris Herrmann (Hamburg), which is equipped with solar panels and hydrogen generators to produce energy.

Greta Thunberg announced on Monday morning (29 July) that her first destination will be the United States of America. The tour will later also take her to Central and South America and will continue well into 2020. After arriving in North America, Greta will take part in two large-scale climate demonstrations on 20 and 27 September and speak at the United Nations Climate Action Summit on 23 September, hosted by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in New York City.

Greta Thunberg is taking a sabbatical from school to attend a whole series of events in North America and meet people who are particularly threatened by climate change and its ecological consequences, as well as climate activists and decision-makers. She is also planning visits to Canada and Mexico. Greta will also travel to the annual UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Santiago de Chile, which takes place from 2 to 13 December. This will be combined with visits to other places in South America that are of particular importance in the fight against the climate crisis.

Greta Thunberg does not fly because air travel produces enormous amounts of emissions - emissions that are highly dispersed because they are emitted high up in the earth's atmosphere. That is why she will choose her transport routes and vehicles in America according to the lowest possible CO2 impact.

After months of searching and weighing up various options for her journey, Greta Thunberg will now sail across the Atlantic on the completely emission-free racing yacht "Malizia II". Built in 2015, the 18-metre IMOCA-class boat generates the necessary electrical energy on board for navigation and communication using solar panels and underwater turbines, propellers at the stern.

Greta is accompanied on the trip by her father Svante Thunberg and filmmaker Nathan Grossman from the company B-Reel Films who will document the journey. The yacht is skippered by professional skipper Boris Herrmann and the founder of Team Malizia, Pierre Casiraghi from Monaco. Both are donating their time and expertise to enable Greta to cross the Atlantic without a flight. The trip is jointly organised by Greta Thunberg, Team Malizia and B-Reel Films.

Team Malizia has also developed the Malizia Ocean Challenge, a project that sensitises schoolchildren to marine and climate protection and supports science by measuring the CO2 and salt content of the oceans on board the ocean-going yacht on all its routes. The data will be analysed by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg and the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Geomar, in order to better understand its significance for climate change. This project is associated with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, a non-profit organisation that supports environmental initiatives and work on climate change.

The "Malizia" will set sail from southern England in mid-August and moor in New York City around two weeks later without stopping. The exact time of departure will be determined according to the weather and wind forecast.

Greta Thunberg: "The science is clear. We have to start bending the emissions curve steeply downwards by 2020 at the latest if we want to have any chance at all of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees. We still have a window of opportunity if we tackle things. But that window is closing fast. That's why I decided to go on this tour now. Over the past year, millions of young people have raised their voices to wake up world leaders and draw attention to the climate and environmental catastrophe. In the coming months, the events in New York and Santiago de Chile will show whether they have listened. Along with many other young people from America and around the world, I will be there, even though the journey will be long and challenging. We will make sure that our voices are heard. It is our future that is at stake, and we must at least have a say in it. The science is clear, and all we children are doing is communicating and acting on the basis of the recognised science. And our challenge to the world is to stand united behind the science."

Boris Herrmann: "Greta stands up against ignorance and injustice in relation to the climate crisis with astonishing courage. I'm not surprised that she has considered this trip to be absolutely feasible for her - given the courage with which she speaks loudly and clearly, even to the most powerful people."

"Pierre and I are aware of our responsibility. We will do everything we can to ensure that she reaches New York in the safest way possible. I am thrilled that our sporting ambitions and our sailing project can play a small but hopefully important role in raising awareness of the biggest challenge facing humanity. I feel humbled that Greta has accepted our offer to cross the Atlantic with her as the cleanest, most environmentally friendly option - despite the lack of comfort for her."

Pierre Casiraghi: "I believe in sensitising people to the increase in global greenhouse gas emissions and pollution caused by human activity. Convincing governments and international institutions to take the step and tighten laws to protect people and biodiversity is of utmost importance for the future of humanity. Greta is an ambassador who delivers a key message for both our society and the survival of future generations."

Team Malizia and I are proud to bring Greta across the Atlantic on this challenging crossing, unfortunately the only option today without fossil fuel emissions. Hopefully this will change in the near future. Respect for Greta's courage to take on this adventure and to fully commit, sacrifice and fight for what is arguably the greatest challenge facing humanity."

Nathan Grossman: "Like many others, Greta has made a big impression on me with her fight for more attention for the climate crisis. In the documentary, we want to show the journey Greta has been on from the beginning, when she sat alone outside the Swedish parliament, until she became a world-renowned activist. On this trip, we will capture the tireless efforts of Greta and her team to get to America with as little carbon emissions as possible. We want the audience to experience both the hardships and the beauty of this journey."