Interview: Melwin Fink and Lennart Burke about their participation in Globe40

YACHT: How are you doing after this time?

Lennart Burke: I'm still a little exhausted, but at the same time flashed by the arrival. Somehow I'm tingling again and that scares me, because it wasn't always easy. We had a lot of ups and downs. More than once we asked ourselves what we were doing here in the first place and swore we would never do it again. And now you're on land and forget all that again. That's crazy. So it's still an emotional merry-go-round. But I'm really looking forward to our return to Germany.

Melwin Fink: I feel the same way. I'm still a bit exhausted too. We're not fully recovered yet. It's been a really tough tour - the last eight months have been tough. You have to let it sink in now. But the tingling sensation is there. Especially with our result. We sailed very well, but had damage en route. That's why we've yet to complete the entire circumnavigation, which is what makes the tingling so strong. We definitely want to be back in 2028.

Tell us about the damage. What happened on the high seas and how did you react?

Melwin Fink: That was a tough one. We had been racing for a week on the third leg, which took us from La Réunion in the Indian Ocean to Sydney, Australia. That's a long way, 5,500 nautical miles. We had very changeable conditions for a week. There was a light wind and we really had to fight our way south. After a week, we finally arrived in the wind, just before the 40th parallel, in the "Roaring Forties". The conditions were perfect for our boat and we were finally able to step on the gas. We were in third place, just 20 miles behind first place.

Then came our first proper night with over 20 knots of boat speed. I was on shift, Lennart went to bed. After less than half an hour, there was a bang. I was sitting under our covered cockpit, looked up and saw that our D2 shroud was dangling down. My first thought was 'shroud torn, could happen'. I dropped the boat, woke Lennart up and we recovered the sails together. Then we found out that not only was the shroud out, but the whole spreader bar, the connecting piece between the spreader and the mast, was broken. Our upper spreader was only pressed against the mast by the pressure of the upper shrouds. That changed the situation dramatically.

Was it clear that you would have to drive back?

Lennart Burke: We realised that our mast was pretty unstable and might break at any moment. We're not mast builders, so we didn't know how much load we could take. In the Southern Ocean, however, one low-pressure system follows another and the storms alternate on a daily basis. So it was clear to us that we had to head north first to get to safety. The nearest country at that time was La Réunion, 1,500 miles away. Actually, there were two small islands just 200 nautical miles away, but there was no harbour there. We could have anchored and bunkered diesel, but diesel was really the least of our problems in this situation.

We made a plan on the way back north. What is the safest route? The shortest route is not always the quickest and safest. The further north we travelled, the calmer the weather became. Unfortunately, travelling on to Sydney was a no-go: for us Germans, Australia really is the other side of the world. A completely different country, different customs, different people, different currency. The flight connections from there are much worse. La Réunion, on the other hand, is more or less France, which makes many things easier for us. Nevertheless, we found it very difficult to make a decision. After almost 24 hours, we decided in favour of La Réunion as the most reasonable destination.

How were you doing mentally?

Melwin Fink: It was pretty tough. We tried to keep a cool head and look at the situation objectively: What options do we have? Essentially, it was about our safety. We discussed a lot, wrote checklists, thought about how we could do it. I found the day before arriving on La Réunion extremely tough. I questioned everything: Was this the smartest thing to do? Couldn't we have done something else? Did we not fight hard enough?

In hindsight, these doubts have dissipated, I am overjoyed that we did it the same way. But the moment just before you arrive back where you started, different to what you had planned, is terrible.

Lennart Burke: The others arrived at their actual destination, Australia, on the very day we arrived back in La Réunion. If our rig had remained intact, we would have arrived there on the same day. The combination of everything hurt incredibly and made me doubt a lot. But now I'm happy with the situation, everything was right.

Did you find out how the damage occurred?

Melwin Fink: We assume that there are air pockets in the material, but the part is still being x-rayed. In the end, you can never say for sure because the part was still sailing with us two weeks after it broke.

You decided to carry on, outside of the judging. How did that feel?

Lennart Burke: We were incredibly grateful that we had the opportunity to get back into the race at all. It was extremely important for us to be able to finish the race and not have to stop in the middle. Crossing the finish line with all the other boats was mentally very important. We really wanted to show what we could do again. The round-the-world race was not only intended to fulfil a dream, but also to raise our profile as sailors. We were then able to prove once again, at least in part, that we have ambition, grit and are not easily beaten.

Was the feeling of failure in Lorient gone?

Melwin Fink: No, actually not. I had a bad feeling when the others arrived and finished their circumnavigation and we didn't. At the award ceremony for the leg that we didn't sail, we heard all the stories. I thought: 'I've done a little crossing of the Atlantic here in my swimming trunks - the other guys have just sailed round Cape Horn. I would have liked to have done that too. But you have to realise how great it is that you're here at all. Nobody had expected that either. Everyone was super happy that we were there again. Of course, we would have loved to have experienced the entire regatta.

What have you learnt for your participation in 2028?

Lennart Burke: One thing would be for us to take more than four months to prepare. But at least the short preparation time had nothing to do with our elimination, which makes me happy. Nevertheless, a big step will be to prepare better. Longer, with more rest. It was very tough for us mentally: everything happened in quick succession: sailing, building the boat, sponsors. It was a very active cocktail, but we don't want to miss it either.

Now you're in Lorient, where Boris Herrmann is also travelling.

Lennart Burke: We are here in the Mecca of ocean sailing. Melwin and I have been active here for six or seven years and therefore know a lot of people, including Boris. He recently bumped into me here and invited me to IMOCA sailing. It's a great opportunity to continue networking, gain experience and enjoy life here before heading back to Germany.

On 2 May, it's off to Hamburg. What will the final be like?

Melwin Fink: Right at the beginning we said we would finish this circumnavigation in Hamburg. That's where we made the decision to take part in the Globe40 in my kitchen. The original plan was to go alongside in the city marina, put down a crate of beer, raise a glass with our best friends, walk home in our sailing gear and take a shower.

Now it has grown into something bigger, because many more people have joined in. When we enter the Elbe, friends and acquaintances will meet us with boats. We will then dock in HafenCity, where a big party with a DJ awaits us.

Lennart Burke: Exactly. We actually wanted to stand on the jetty with a crate of beer, very down-to-earth, as is our favourite thing to do. But over the last few months, we've realised that we've created something much bigger with this Globe campaign. We've had so many interactions online, comments, likes, private messages. We can't just stand on the jetty with a crate of beer. We want to give the people who have been with us the chance to celebrate with us, to come back home to where it all began.

Is it getting emotional?

Lennart Burke: One or two tears will fall. Maybe not for Melwin and me, we're rather bad at it. But it will be a very emotional moment for us because we'll know then: It's over. In Hamburg, we'll see the crowds, our families, our sponsors, all in one place. With social media, you only see numbers, but you don't really meet the people. It will be really big on that day. We're looking forward to seeing everyone at once.

Melwin Fink: I think it's going to be very emotional. I haven't had any tears yet, but I don't want to rule out the possibility of a tear.

Looking back - a catchphrase for that time?

Melwin Fink: Very impressive. Impressive on so many levels.

Lennart Burke: I can't summarise it in one word, it was too big for that. But what always comes to mind is the finish in La Réunion, where we came second after trailing by 600 nautical miles and really made waves. So many people were cheering us on. The organiser was completely stunned by what happened online. The response, the news, everything exploded to an extent that I'd never experienced before. Gigantic.

The interview is also available as a podcast, You can find all information HERE.

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More on the topic:

• Inspired by Boris Herrmann - Burke and Fink sail around the world!
• Stage two of the circumnavigation underway - Burke and Fink in front
• Film documentary on the final - "All in" for Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink
• Circumnavigation of the globe interrupted - a tough draw for Burke and Fink
• Resurrection instead of circumnavigation - Burke/Fink at the finish line Mast repaired, Fink crew on comeback course Cape Town
• First the final, then Hamburg harbour festival for Burke and Fink