He didn't have far to go. At home in Germany, millions of viewers were following him. Around 650,000 viewers tuned in to the NDR live television broadcast alone, which got off to a somewhat bumpy start due to the multiple postponements. Everyone wanted to follow the German sailing star as he fought for a place on the podium at his premiere. Even victory still seemed possible. "I've been fighting like a lion for this over the past few days," said Herrmann. But then, in the dark of night, there was a collision with a fishing trawler and the podium dreams were dashed. Luckily, neither Herrmann nor the sailors involved came to any harm. Herrmann describes the sequence of events in a video that he sent from on board a few hours after the incident:
"About half an hour ago, I collided with a fishing trawler. A big fishing trawler. I was just asleep. Here in the cockpit. I woke up and looked at a huge wall. My sails on the starboard side were on its side. My gennaker was caught in his cranes and other side superstructures. My outrigger banged into the trawler a few times. Then, fortunately, I was able to get past him and carry on. But that was a real shock moment.
Then I checked everything thoroughly. Firstly, the most important things: that no water gets in. The foil is damaged. But not the foil box. The bowsprit is broken off. The pulpit is also broken, but still attached. Then I also had the broken flapping sail in the air. I got dressed first and put on my lifebelt. Then I went to the foredeck and made a plan to get the sail back on board. At first I thought about cutting it all away. But then I thought that I might be able to use the halyard and other things later. I lowered the windward rudder blade to maximise safety when steering. That was quite a job. Then I climbed onto the outrigger for inspection. The upper shroud was broken off, sheared off at the fitting. But the outrigger is still in place and I can put in an emergency shroud. The mast has two shrouds. The lower one is still there. I'm sailing on starboard bow, so the rig looks good. And seems safe for the moment, as far as I can tell.
Now I'm in contact with the Shore team to develop the best plan. I will probably reef my mainsail. It's still fully hoisted - for safer sailing. And I have a half-broken foil hanging in the water. It's pretty badly broken. And I'm pretty devastated. I'm sorry for everyone who is supporting us that this has happened.
This is certainly the worst nightmare that has ever happened to me. On the plus side, we're still in the race and still have a mast. It's 85 nautical miles to the finish. I think we can manage that. We'll lose a lot of places, but that's almost secondary at the moment. What really concerns me is the question of why this happened. I had all the alarm systems on. There were a lot of boats that afternoon. The radar alarm warned me perfectly every time. The AIS alarm warned me. Oscar was also on. I had everything on. And I consciously checked with each ship whether the alarm was working properly. I watched the radar to see what the echo was like. And that worked perfectly for all the ships I encountered. But when I was back below deck after the incident, there was no alarm. How can the radar not see this ship? I have no idea. Sometimes the fishermen don't switch on their AIS. I try to take another deep breath and solve this problem with the shroud and am happy to finish the race. It's pretty heartbreaking, but we'll get through this."
The "Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco" skipper tells us what happened during the collision with the fishing trawler, what condition his boat is in now and when he expects to arrive in Les Sables-d'Olonne
In a later message, Herrmann also gave moving insights into his thoughts and how he dealt with the painful setback at the end of a great race:
"I collided with a fishing boat at 7.30 pm. No one was injured. I can continue my race, but I've slowed down considerably. I'm now travelling at six or seven knots. I'll probably finish tomorrow around midday or early afternoon instead of shortly after midnight as planned tonight. Of course, that means the podium and the placings are gone. But I see it as bad luck. And the positive thing about the accident is that I will still finish the Vendée Globe, that nobody was hurt and the damage to the boat is repairable. But it's still a tough day for me. I have one laughing and one crying eye. The laughing eye says 'Be glad it didn't happen elsewhere, earlier in the race. Be happy that you can finish the race', the crying eye of course sees the damage and the lost podium after 80 days of such hard work. This once in a lifetime opportunity... Maybe I'll never get that close to a podium again? I've fought like a lion over the last few days. And today... Oh well. I'm still looking forward to arriving. To seeing the people again. And starting my first day ashore this year tomorrow. Best wishes from on board from a dejected and somewhat sad skipper."
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
