Vendée Globe: Boris Herrmann on his opponents - "Almost perfect preparation"
Tatjana Pokorny
· 31.10.2024
YACHT: Boris, before your first Vendée Globe start, you were very understated about your chances. Do you think it's right to count yourself among the favourites this time?
Boris Herrmann: Of course I'm hoping for a great result! It could be anything between 1st and 10th place, but anything worse than the top ten would be a big disappointment. On the other hand, it depends on the conditions. If I'm significantly affected en route, just getting to the finish will be a challenge. It can be difficult with the Vendée Globe can easily lead to such a scenario, even through no fault of its own.
Do you feel well prepared for your second solo trip around the world?
Very good! The Vendée Globe is actually a race in two phases: There is the race for the best possible preparation and the regatta itself. If you want to do it with Olympia then the actual race is like the medal race - even if it takes a little longer (laughs).
That means...?
... that we have already done 90 per cent of the work. Our preparation for the Vendée Globe is complete. What we did in the second half of the summer was training, a kind of warm-up.
Then luck comes into play in the Vendée Globe. If there's a stupid object, a tree trunk floating around in the water like last time with Samantha Davies, who had a collision off Cape Town and had to give up... then it's over. Sam could have won the race. That's the luck or bad luck factor. We can prepare ourselves athletically like Olympic athletes: with great meticulousness, over a long period of time and with a lot of focus, but the Vendée Globe is not a series of races with strikes. There is only one race, and it's a damn long one. The risk is therefore greater.
Do you see yourself with your boat and your team in the front row?
In terms of homework completed, we are among the frontrunners. So we can't deny ourselves co-favourite status. I would describe our preparation as almost perfect.
Up until the Défi Azimut, you were first in the Imoca rankings and are now a close second behind Charlie Dalin. And in France, many observers rank you among the top five - a good feeling?
The Imoca ranking is interesting. If I'm not so far ahead, I don't look at it that often. But I'm currently one of the leaders. Of course I like that. It's advertising for our team. Our competition is much more complex than an individual sport. It's also about getting and keeping good people in the team. So the image the team has to the outside world also counts. A top position like this is good for that. We can give people the feeling that we stand for performance. We are not a team that lags behind.
Your "Malizia - Seaexplorer", which was launched for the first time in Lorient on 19 July 2022, is considered one of the most solid new developments. How important is that to you?
We've been sailing almost the same boat since the 2023 Ocean Race - without any major changes, apart from the new foils. The only other person to have sailed the Ocean Race in its entirety is Paul Meilhat with "Biotherm". Benjamin Dutreux with the "Guyot" team only did parts of the race; for example, he missed the entire Southern Ocean leg due to laminate cracks in the hull bottom. He is now getting new wings - the same ones we had for the Ocean Race. So he's basically starting all over again. And Seb Simon, who took over the Ocean Race-winning "11th Hour Racing", was not on board this boat, just as Justine Mettraux is now sailing on a different Imoca. We have an immense advantage in terms of experience.
Which other skippers are your favourites?
There could be six to ten people sailing for the win and the podium places. These include Charlie Dalin, Thomas Ruyant, Yoann Richomme, Jérémie Beyou, Sam Davies, Justine Mettraux, perhaps also Maxime Sorel, Louis Burton, Benjamin Dutreux and Nico Lunven...
...your old navigator from the Ocean Race...
... yes, I have a really good feeling about Nico. He brings so much to the table. He has a good team and already knows the boat really well. I would definitely put him on the list. Even if he starts with a little less self-confidence or security because he hasn't yet sailed the boat alone in the Southern Ocean.
How do you rate Charlie Dalin?
Charlie is naturally a favourite because he has the fastest boat on flat water. His dominance in the 48-hour Defi Azimut race was breathtaking. He sails like he's in a different league, really clean and impressive, chapeau! If we have conditions like that at the Vendée Globe in the Atlantic up to Cape Town, i.e. wind and flat seas, which can happen, then he can quickly take a dramatic lead. However, if we have difficult conditions, then it's a different story.
Better for you and "Malizia - Seaexplorer"?
Thomas Ruyant and I have the fastest boats in swell and strong, gusty winds - in other words, good boats for the Vendée Globe. It remains to be seen to what extent Charlie Dalin will completely rip us off in the Atlantic with his very boxy and flat Verdier design, then arrive in the Southern Ocean a weather system ahead of us and drive us all round the ears. That could be one scenario. Another could be that he is simply struggling with a boat that is difficult to sail, throws a lot of water on deck and undercuts a lot. That is actually the big question of this Vendée Globe.
Very different designs compete against each other.
The Vendée Globe is always also an architecture competition. And there are simply these two concepts, the two extremes: on the one side Charlie Dalin with "Macif Santé Prévoyance", on the other side us. Thomas Ruyant's "Vulnerable" is also more on our side, as is Yoann Richomme's "Paprec Arkéa". They are sister ships. It's really difficult to superimpose the concepts in such a way that the best of both worlds merge together. The ideal ship would be one that is super-fast on flat water and then also gets through swell well. But that is diametrically opposed. What you gain in one area, you lose in the other. That's why I'm so excited about the results of this race.
And there are more designs...
The Sam Manuard ships are interesting: "Charal" by Jérémie Beyou and "Initiatives Cœur" by Sam Davies. And there is also the Manuard design by Louis Burton, which has a very similar hull shape (the former "l'Occitane"). I don't even know where I would place them in the spectrum - perhaps in the centre.
Centre means that you are not best in class under any conditions?
Exactly. They're just not as 'easy going' downwind and in waves as we are. But they can rake well in smooth water. Charal' is another special case with rudders in a V arrangement that generate lift and are self-regulating. This clearly makes Jérémie the fastest on the wind. So if we get a special weather constellation, for example with a low over the Azores, so that we sail downwind from Les Sables to the Canary Islands - that could be the case, because there is such a weather situation every three or four weeks, in my opinion even more often than before - then he might be well ahead.
Jérémie Beyou is an interesting guy: experienced, ambitious, but always lacking a little fortune.
Many French people are not quite sure whether he can finish the Vendée Globe. He is said to have a kind of "make it or break it" mentality because they believe he pushes his material too hard and doesn't weigh it up enough. He has a bit of a reputation as the new Alex Thomson. In the Transat CIC, he also hammered downwind at full throttle until everything blew up in his face. So maybe that's not such a big surprise.
Vendée Globe title defender and "Maître-Coq" skipper Yannick Bestaven has not stood out much since his 2021 Vendée Globe win...
That was a big surprise in this preparation, that he underperformed the whole time. But there are a whole host of other exciting participants on the list: China's Jingkun Xu brings hundreds of thousands of followers with him. He only has one arm. I don't know how he does it. I always find Conrad Colman exciting as a fighter and endurance runner.
What do you think of the skipper of your old "Malizia", Romain Attanasio, who had to finance a new rig via crowd-funding after breaking his mast with "Fortinet - Best Western"?
I felt really sorry for him and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he makes it. Romain is rather reserved, quiet, discreet, not a show-off. A very solid worker, also a member of the Pôle Finistère. He is actually very underrated because, like Alan Roberts, he is part of the performance milieu. Benjamin Dutreux could also perform this time. I would perhaps give him the new Bestaven role.
What about the Brit Pip Hare, who fought so bravely in the previous Vendée and reported so favourably from on board?
Pip could also surprise us once again. She has taken a big step forward and got her project back on track. And Damien Seguin will be strong again. Just like Louis Burton. He's a tough guy who never gives up. Then there's Sébastien Simon, who wants to know. It's a kind of revenge for him. He had the big campaign with Arkéa Paprec in 2020. That didn't go so well, wasn't such a well-managed flop.
Would you give three podium tips?
I'm happy to take myself out of the running for something like this. Yoann Richomme is a very strong candidate. He's a super guy, completely mature and well-rounded. He doesn't just know his stuff, he can also design ships. He did just that in the Class40 and won the Route du Rhum. And that was just an intermediate stage while his Imoca was being built. So, he can do something, he had already collected many merits in the Solitaire du Figaro. And his father, as head of Incidence, also knows a thing or two about how to make a boat with sails fast. If I were to go out on a limb, I'd put him and Thomas on the podium. And maybe Sam Davies.
You yourself have a reputation as a rock-solid skipper, you're not a risk-taker and you don't have to deal with breakdowns very often...
That was the concept from the outset: build a very stable and solid boat, develop it in the Ocean Race, test and optimise it over the long term and then hopefully have no problems in the Vendée. Of course, there will still be problems. It takes a surprisingly long time to get a boat like this to super-reliability.
Is "Malizia - Seaexplorer" ready?
We probably won't know for sure until after the Vendée Globe at the Ocean Race Europe next year. There are still conditions and constellations that we haven't experienced.
Really?
Yes, you sail around the world but have never had certain wind angles. Of course, the longer you sail a boat, the more you rule it out. But it can take up to six years before a boat like this is really fully developed.
The next owner would also have something of this...
That's the good thing about the Imocas! These boats are not one-day wonders. They have a right to exist in at least two Vendée Globes. And then a third and maybe a fourth for a youngster or an adventurer. My old boat only worked really well in the 2020/21 race three years after I took it over. The previous owners had been developing it for four years. So it actually took seven years to reach full maturity.
