Imoca 60 Seaexplorer: Boris Herrmann's virtual test drive for his birthday

There are few more exciting boats on the planet than a foiling Imoca racer. And there are few things a skipper would rather miss than the first outing after a refit, which was almost like a total rebuild.

Professional skipper Boris Herrmann, however, let his team around boat captain Stuart McLachlan, co-skipper Will Harris and Barcelona World Race buddy Ryan Breymaier take the lead in the highly anticipated and somewhat nervous first outing of the completely optimised "Seaexplorer", the former "Malizia".

At 10 a.m., as the crew prepared the twelve (12!) metre wide boat with its new foils for the test run in Lorient on the French Atlantic coast, the man from Hamburg was waiting at home on his smartphone for the first pictures and WhatsApp messages, constantly interrupted by calls and congratulations.

In the year of his Vendée Globe première, the imminent pinnacle of an already stellar ocean-going career, these two small highlights coincided today: his 39th birthday and the first day of sailing the boat that will take him around the world in 70 days. To achieve this, the foils were lengthened enormously, the hull reinforced and the on-board electronics, including the autopilot, made even more powerful. We have presented the measures in two detailed reports, most recently in the big interview in yesterday's YACHT 12.

The "Seaexplorer" is not only full of technology for determining important measurements for marine research. Thanks to several on-board cameras and load sensors, it can also be fully controlled from below deck. If he had been able to dial into the on-board computer via a live connection, Boris would have been right in the middle of the action in his flat, so to speak. But as it was, he had to make do with screenshots and mobile phone photos.

The news from the Bay of Biscay sounded encouraging: "Everything's okay so far," says the skipper. Although the crew took it easy and ran the main in the first reef, the hydrofoil quickly lifted the flattened bow out of the water downwind - "with only 26 per cent load on the foil", as Boris told YACHT online. That still leaves plenty of reserves for wilder rides.

The fact that he didn't want to swap his home for the barren cockpit of the "Seaexplorer" was not so much due to his birthday, at least not his own - the sailor and his wife Birte are expecting their first baby at any moment. Until then, Boris has self-imposed quarantine. He will probably not be travelling to France until the middle/end of June to test his boat himself. The first and only preparatory regatta before the Vendée is then scheduled for 4 July.

Happy birthday, Boris - and for everything else to come this year!