"The German Offshore Award has come of age," said Hamburg's State Councillor Christoph Holstein at the start of the German Offshore Award ceremony. This was the 18th time that the prize of honour of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg had been awarded. Boris Herrmann's "Malizia - Seaexplorer" won the race for best German offshore yacht 2024 in the magnificent setting of the largest hall in Hamburg City Hall, which covers 720 square metres.
German Offshore Award: "Malizia" ahead of "Red Bandit"
With a lead of just 0.41 points, the Imoca of Germany's best-known ocean sailor Boris Herrmann narrowly beat Carl-Peter Forster's TP52 "Red Bandit" from the Bavarian Yacht Club. The "Red Bandit" had won the Rolex Middle Sea Race last year. The formula-based vote, in which a jury awards points, was closer than ever before.
The German Offshore Award is presented annually to the best German offshore yacht in international regattas by a jury of representatives from the major Hamburg sailing clubs. chaired by the Hamburg Sailing Association awarded. The jury for the German Offshore Award is made up of the board members of five clubs responsible for sailing: Blankeneser Segel-Club, Hamburger Segel-Club, Norddeutscher Regatta Verein, Segelvereinigung Altona-Oevelgönne and Mühlenberger Segel-Club.
Boris Herrmann has already won the German Offshore Award three times in the past. His boats had received the award for the regatta years 2009 ("Beluga Racer"/Portimão Global Race), 2018 ("Malizia"/Route du Rhum) and 2021 ("Malizia - Seaexplorer"/Vendée Globe). Boris Herrmann's fourth win at the German Offshore Award was not a reward for his performance as twelfth in the Vendée Globe, which had ended for him 35 days earlier, but for his formidable second place behind Charlie Dalin in the highly competitive Transat New York Vendée 2024.
Shone in the Transat New York Vendée
"The New York-Vendée race was a breathless sprint over more than 3,000 nautical miles in which the yacht was able to show off its full performance," said State Councillor Christoph Holstein in his laudatory speech, recalling the strong performance of "Malizia - Seaexplorer" and her skipper from Hamburg. Christoph Holstein continued: "In this race, Boris Herrmann impressively demonstrated the yacht's potential in optimal weather conditions and how outstanding his ship sails when man and boat function as a perfect unit."
Boris Herrmann and members of the Malizia team came to the town hall in his adopted home city of Hamburg and were delighted to receive the award once again. The six-time circumnavigator expressed his thanks and said: "I feel very honoured. I am also a little surprised. Because with our category, we are often not at the top of this formula and the rankings. So I am very happy about this award and thank our team and all our partners who support us."
In addition to "Malizia - Seaexplorer", which is facing a challenging regatta season after its refit with races such as the Course du Caps, the Ocean Race Europe on 10 August in Kiel and the Transat Café D'Or in autumn, and "Red Bandit", whose crew is already planning intensively for the Admiral's Cup comeback in the summer, other successful German regatta yachts were nominated.
A worthy winner and strong candidates
Henri de Bokay's Elliot 52 "Rafale" was also up for election (Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee) for winning the Rund Skagen Race and the Neo 430 "Neomind" by Sascha Schröder (Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee) for winning the overall ORC classification and 3rd place after IRC in the Aegean 600. The fifth candidate was the First 31.7 "Lucky Five" of Leif Petersen (Neustädter Seglerverein) for her victory in the Baltic 500 double-handed regatta.
The Life Time Award Carl Friedrich Schott, known to most in the sailing scene as "Schotti", was honoured for his lifetime achievement in sailing. The 78-year-old is considered a veteran of the German Offshore Award and has been the anchor and grand seigneur of the award for more than 15 years. For decades, the honouree worked internationally as a race officer, with the 1972 Olympic Games in Kiel marking a high point in his career as a race official.
For many decades, Carl Friedrich Schott was committed to international understanding and cooperation between leading yacht clubs, and was particularly active in and for the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC). Melwin Fink and Lennart Burke received the Wehring & Wolfes Youth Award at the 18th German Offshore Award. The two young Class 40 co-skippers are symbolic figures of the new German offshore scene. They are also known as Hamburg's best-known sailing flat-share and are working with their jointly founded shipyard Next Generation Boating to constantly broaden their horizons.
German Offshore Award: Burke and Fink are role models
Only 23 and 26 years old themselves, the duo are inspiring other young talents in addition to their own ambitious projects: Tom Wehde from Kiel is heading for the Mini-Transat 2027 under the umbrella of their team Next Generation Sailing, while Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink are successfully working on a joint offshore career with the Class 40 "Next Generation Boating". With their multi-dimensional commitment, Burke and Fink have long since fulfilled the request made by Mona Küppers in her appeal to the sailing scene.
The DSV President wants the sailing scene to maximise its commitment to young talent. She said: "The DSV provides a yacht with a young crew for the Commodore Cup every year. I hope that many clubs will follow this example." She also appealed to the owners and crews to give young sailors opportunities. Her appeal: "It takes a combination of inspiring stories, real experiences and a strong community to enable young people to get into sailing."
At the same time, Boris Herrmann indirectly called on ambitious young sailors to show more initiative. The six-time circumnavigator said with a view to the Ocean Race Europe and the upcoming presentation of new crew members for Team Malizia: "Unfortunately, there are no other Germans. Of course, I would have been delighted if there had been a few more German candidates. We always have an unsolicited application for the team to take part. But I have to say: not a single one from Germany. And that's actually a shame."
Competitive sailing: Rejuvenation desired
According to Boris Herrmann, he even actively tried to "recruit one or two German sailors to other teams last year, but it hasn't worked so far". His interim conclusion: "So we need to rejuvenate ourselves a little and keep beating the advertising drum." With Melwin Fink and Lennart Burke, Herrmann says that they have "two strong prospects who are very successful in this direction".
REPLAY! The review of the Transat New York Vendée 2024. Boris Herrmann's "Malizia - Seaexplorer" won the German Offshore Award in second place:
