Ocean Race Europe: "My last race with this ship" - Interview with Boris Herrmann

The Ocean Race Europe is just around the corner, starting on 10 August. Seven racing teams will then set off on the first leg from Kiel to Portsmouth in England, where they are expected to arrive four to five days later. 4,500 nautical miles and six weeks of tough imocaracing await the best skippers currently available. We are standing with Boris Herrmann from Team Malizia in front of the Kiel Yacht Club directly on the fjord and are already waiting for a crowd of people to form around us:

YACHT: Boris, how do you deal with the huge interest people show in you?

Boris Herrmann: Fortunately, we're a little further down here, so hopefully we can continue talking undisturbed. But yes, when I walk along the quay line here, it's hard to have a continuous conversation. But it's just great, the response from the people here, the enthusiasm for sailing and the great support from the people of Kiel. But there are also a lot of newcomers who come here to watch.

You studied in Kiel and are now coming back "home". What is that like for you?

It's always the case in my sailing life now that I have to travel a long way to the start, to the event, to France or to other countries. And now, of course, starting at home is also a home advantage. I know my way around here and I feel at home here. And that makes it much easier for me.

What do you say to the fans? You were received almost like a football star yesterday.

It's amazing how well people have taken to the flyby here. And that's something that runs through all the big sailing events. Kiel simply has that Kiel Sailing City feeling. Many people also come from other cities. It would be interesting to see the statistics on where they come from. It's marvellous to see how sailing in Germany is getting such a great response.

How do you personally feel about the fact that you are no longer just Boris Herrmann, but are now simply a celebrity?

Good question. In everyday life, it's not like that all the time. Here around an event, it's clear that you simply play several roles. In one role I like to be there for the people, little signatures, and that's really nice. So we have really, really great fans. And many thanks to all of them. It's actually only positive. Very rarely, or to be honest, I can hardly remember us being bashed and people criticising us like they do elsewhere. It must be really exhausting to have that. We just have positive vibes. So thank you very much for that.

How important is the Ocean Race Europe to you? Is it just another stage that you do in order to improve even further at the end?

The Ocean Race is the most important thing this year and also next year. Last year it was the Vendée Globe. That didn't go quite as well for me with twelfth place at the end as I would have dreamed. So the Ocean Race is also a bit of a chance to maybe come back. I can't finish twelfth here because there are seven of us. But I hope we don't finish seventh. And in that respect, of course, we want to finish on the podium and in a top position and really make a statement with this ship, which I have put so much heart and soul into, and which will then take a new direction with new colours, a new name and an Italian skipper who will take over from October. And until then, it will be my last race on this boat. And I want to really show what this boat is made of.

You have a very fresh team at the start, international. How does your teamwork work?

We have teamwork both on land and at sea. We have 28 days of events on land, 28 days of sailing time, roughly estimated. This means that the race is also won on land. It's also part of the regulations here that you can only deploy a limited number of technicians to keep the boat in good condition. So they have to know exactly what they are doing. And then, of course, it is also a logistical task to manage the whole thing. The team here with me consists of champions who are beyond reproach. And it is also remarkable that we are half men and half women. But actually all the crews on all the boats are international teams. The race, our racing family and community here, is very international. That's why the race's slogan, Connecting Europe, fits quite well. It doesn't really make much sense to give a boat its own national flag because we are all international teams.

How do you coordinate with each other?

When we head out to the start line on Sunday, we'll be sailing together for the first time. We've all sailed on the boat before, but never in this constellation. There are six of us in total. That means we have two substitutes. There are four of us on board for each leg, including at least one woman. I think that will be really good.

And our people are of course not just anyone, but almost the best you can find. That's why we chose them. Will Harris, who is also on board, has been my co-skipper, my right-hand man and my close confidant in the team since 2019. He has sailed a lot with the boat and recently finished an excellent fourth in the race around England with Cole, who is now also on board. So of course we've all done a lot together in various combinations. Justine also knows her way around incredibly well. And our navigator for this leg, Justine Mettraux from Switzerland, is the best sailor in the world. So I think it will work out really well.

The start line on Sunday is relatively far out. There are safety reasons for this, but it's not so good for the spectators. What do you think about that?

I think both are legitimate and this has certainly been well decided and weighed up. It is also a discussion with the local authorities as to what can be authorised and what cannot. In any case, the boats cannot take the eight-knot maximum speed into account here. In this respect, this may also have played a role in the decision. It will be possible for the people here on the Kiellinie to see the parade in the morning on Sunday, to see the boats. And then everything will also be very easy to see live, digitally I mean. And anyone who is in Bülk, Schilksee or Laboe will certainly be able to see a lot. Or from the boats going out.

Tell us a bit about the ordeal that awaits you in the Ocean Race Europe. How tough will it be?

A long, cold race through the Southern Ocean like we did in the last Ocean Race, from Cape Town to Brazil, that can be very depriving and I would say at the end of the day it's harder, or at least at times harder, than this race. But in another way it's going to be tough here too, brutally intense, tacking every half hour or changing something, changing sails to react to the new wind conditions that are constantly changing on the coast. It's a completely different kind of challenge than the very long legs we usually sail.

Do you still have the jitters before a race like this? Do you still have that horrible tingling in your stomach before it starts?

Yes, I'm definitely excited because it's also the last race with my boat, which we've had for four years now. We've been working on the boat for six years now. I just want to finish on a high note with this boat. Of course, we have strong competition here. We have seven ships at the start and all of them can finish on the podium. Many of them can win the race. It will be decided on small details, which is why there is so much intensity and attention. That makes me a bit anxious, respectful of the race and I'm definitely very excited.

Are you worried that it will be very crowded on the fjord?

It can come to an end very quickly due to stupid circumstances. We saw this in the last Ocean Race Europe, where Team Elevens Hour had two collisions and was therefore unable to realise the victory it deserved in the end.

It is an eminent danger to collide here at the start line or to hit another boat somewhere during a speed run, against a fairway buoy. A foil like this, which sticks out the side of our boat, is a major risk for such a collision. It takes almost a year to build one of these things. It's hugely expensive and not insured. So there's a bit of risk and excitement. Once we're out of the way, away from the others, away from all these shoals, then we can really concentrate on our actual work.

How do you prepare yourself? Physically and mentally, of course. Or are you simply so fit in all areas that you say, no, I'm going in like this, I'm fit?

We have organised training in France, where we prepare with coaches, debriefing and data analysis and measure ourselves against our strongest competitors on a regular basis. We've done that now. Afterwards, the team took part in the lap race without me. I just didn't want to make the season too intense so that I could clear my head a bit and recover from the Vendée Globe for the time being and get back on land. That also takes time. Now I'm ready for new challenges. Now we can get going. I sailed the equivalent distance from the earth to halfway to the moon on the boat. I have fulfilled my aim of practising with this boat.

You have an onboard reporter with you. Tell us briefly, what's her job like? How does she manage with the swell, with the banging out there, with the tightness. What does she do? How does she do it? What kind of job is it?

I think the job of onboard reporter is one of the hardest jobs there is in the world. You're on your own for weeks on end, not really integrated into the team as an outsider. You're not allowed to sail yourself, you're not allowed to touch the wind crank and lines, you don't have a workstation, you have to somehow clamp the laptop to your knees, you're tossed around in the wet boat, you don't have a proper place to sleep. Then you're always in the way of the sailors, who might kick you back and forth and actually want to sail the boat quickly, giving up as little time as possible for all these requests from the onboard reporter. At the same time, the onboard reporter is under pressure from the race organiser and the sponsors to produce things and answer questions. So, I think it's really not an easy task.

We had already spoken to each other during your first Vendée Globe and you said, "remind me when I'm back on land that I'll never do anything like this again". Then you did the second one and there will probably be a third, fourth and fifth one in the end, right?

So definitely a third one. It's all in the bag. The new ship is under construction and will be launched next June. I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be a really great ship. Very different from the current one. It has steering wheels. We will actively steer it around the world in the Ocean Race. Not all the time, of course, but we want to get the last bit out of it in certain conditions. And it looks really sleek, it's going to be quite a ship. Then we move on. Ocean Race 2028/29 will be my next career highlight, so to speak, and my big goal. Of course, I want to win the Ocean Race first. That will be an exciting few years. But a fourth Vendée Globe? That's hard to say. For now, we have a plan until 2030, we're set up until the end of the decade and you can't say that about many of the players, that they've been organised, set up and financed for so long. In this respect, it's a very privileged situation.

You're now in your mid-40s, how are you doing?

I think mid-40s is a good age for maximum performance in our sport. Maybe even a tick older. The winner of the 2021 Vendée Globe was 47, which is a typical age for Vendée Globe winners. Sailors tend to get a little younger because the boats are also becoming more physically demanding. But it's an experience-based sport and that's why there are always very strong people in our sport who are over 50, approaching 60. Of course, you have to keep yourself physically fit, but you don't have to be the 100 metre runner, the athlete where every second counts. It's an experience sport, a mental sport, and whether a manoeuvre takes a second longer is not the deciding factor in a race around the world. The strategy is the decisive factor.

Let's talk about the environment. There are a lot of people who say, great, he's pretending to do something for the environment, but he's driving around in an Imoca, which is certainly not ideal, let's say. What arguments do you give them?

I don't think we have to question our existence, our actions, our behaviour per se. That's not my first impulse. I am a sailor first and have been for a long time, and then I look at what I can contribute and do within my activity and improve it step by step. I don't think I can go along with such a militant point of view, where you completely question your activity. I don't think that's right. If I take the standpoint of these radical critics, then I can only sit in my garden. If I have one. Then there's not much you can do. I also believe that we can achieve a lot. We want to encourage the public to be sensitised to the importance of protecting the oceans, of climate protection activities. If we were to measure our emissions per person reached, we would do incredibly well with a race like this, unbeatable compared to other sporting and cultural events. We are a very small community here, travelling around Europe in a few Bullis.

When you stop at some point, what kind of boat will you buy and where will you sail to?

I love the Kiel Fjord. Strande is one of my favourite places. I really feel at home there. I sailed and trained there a lot. Intensive sailing. In the past, always against Wolfgang Hunger, he was the pioneer. In summer, there's nothing better than sailing in the Danish South Sea. A small boat would be good, because in Denmark, in the Baltic Sea, you can't get very far with a big yacht. And a small, handy boat will do.

The interview was conducted by Timm Kruse. You can also in our podcast listen.