Even the route to the line was unusual. One day before the actual start, the 28 soloists of the New York Vendée set off to sail the 90 nautical miles to the virtual line, which consisted of just two GPS coordinates. No fans, no team boats, and even the race organisers were far away, in an office room in Manhattan, working on their computers.
The organisers did try to simulate something like a live atmosphere by using video streams from some of the Imocas to complement the moderation. However, the broadcast did not really do justice to the significance of the race. It fell painfully short of the images that usually make the start of major ocean races comprehensible.
Rosalin Kuiper and Will Harris, both part of Boris Herrmann's Team Malizia during The Ocean Race, were at least two real experts in the open-air studio in New York. They helped to enrich the English-language commentary, which admittedly suffered from the superficiality of the US presenter - and the fact that not a single live link to the skippers at sea worked. So much for the much-vaunted superiority of Starlink. In any case, Tesla founder Elon Musk's satellite communications network delivered mostly blurred images and no usable sound. What a pity!
In fact, everything was missing: the moderator missed the actual start. There was no feedback channel to the race director, so it remained unclear whether all the boats crossed the line cleanly or whether, as the GPS tracker suggested, there had been a few early starts.
And then, of course, the wind! Barely 2 to 3 Beaufort were blowing when the field set off at 8 p.m. Central European Summer Time on the course that first leads to a waypoint in the south-east and then in a wide loop to the north-east, east and later south-east towards Les Sables d'Olonne.
Boris Herrmann started very committed and completely upwind, where many favourites also tried their luck: Yoann Richomme, Sam Goodchild, Justine Mettraux - while Thomas Ruyant and Jérémie Beyou kept a little further east. Boris showed good speed and overview at the start; in the first half hour it looked as if his tactics were working.
But then the boats placed to the east of the field gradually picked up, especially the Imocas without foils, led by Eric Bellion's new build "Stand as one" from designer David Raison, whose designs dominate the mini scene. Violette Dorange on "Devenir" also got off to a good start; she was in fourth place after just under two hours and needs a solid, above all safe race because she is still fighting to qualify for the Vendée Globe in November.
Of course, this early phase should not be overestimated. Things will only get exciting once the skippers have passed the waypoint set up to protect the whales tomorrow. The aim will be to reach the front, which is currently to the east, as quickly as possible - and, if possible, to get to the front of it. Only then can a noticeable increase in the initially rather leisurely pace be expected.
That won't be easy. And even after that, there are a number of tactical hurdles ahead. "There will be many challenging weather developments over the next few days," said Will Harris, who yesterday developed a kind of playbook with Boris, in which they recorded when he can take rest periods and when it is worth pushing hard. In any case, the Hamburg native is ready to give it his all, as he said in the YACHT interview (to the direct link click here!).
To keep his motivation high, he has stocked up better than most of his rivals, as he did during the Transat CIC. He has a pressure cooker with him so that he can make himself some pasta, as well as a sufficient supply of fresh eggs. These served as psychological warfare in the final phase of the outward leg of the race. As he got closer and closer to Yoann Richomme, he sent the leader a photo of a pan of fried eggs that he had prepared. Richomme took it with a smile and refused to let the victory be taken from him. Boris, however, enjoyed the hot meal - and the fun.
It seems as if he has found a new lightness for solo sailing and a bite that he lacked at the beginning, when "Malizia - Seaexplorer" was still new and full of surprises. But now he has arrived on his boat and in the competition. It won't be easy because the VPLP design still has a few small deficits despite the new foils, especially in the transition to foiling. But the strong start was a good indication that he can compete.
Jochen Rieker
Herausgeber YACHT
