Vendée Globe: Boris Herrmann's "Seaexplorer" kisses French waters

After the development and construction of the new foils and months of refit - all in all around 12,000 man-hours of work - Boris Herrmann's Imoca "Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco" was launched for the first time on Wednesday afternoon in Lorient, Brittany. The skipper himself followed the process live and "positively excited" on his screen at home in Hamburg. After sitting out a few Breton gusts in Lorient, the programme for the late afternoon included the measurement by the highly experienced Imoca chief surveyor René Boulaire and his team. The christening of the boat in its new guise will take place at a later date after the first test strokes and with the skipper and his team. Boris Herrmann and his wife Birte are expecting their first child in Hamburg these days. Only after the birth will Herrmann be travelling to France to take command of his Vendée Globe yacht with the starting number 10, which has been painted on the deck of the yacht.

Herrmann was in constant contact with his team on Wednesday. Eight people took care of the complex manoeuvre in Lorient, pulling the "Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco" out of the shipyard, lowering it into the harbour basin by crane and setting the mast. "Now we'll see if we get the measurement certificate," said Herrmann, "it can always be a little different than expected. Whether it's the weight or the centre of gravity." Herrmann's international team will carry out the first test voyages on site before the 38-year-old, the first German Vendée Globe starter in the history of the single-handed non-stop race around the world, prepares for the new "Vendée-Arctic-Les Sables d'Olonne" long-distance race, which he intends to start on 4 July with many other Vendée Globe participants.

Some still need this regatta to fulfil the required mileage requirement. Boris Herrmann has already fulfilled this qualification hurdle for the Vendée Globe. The new race, which was created during the coronavirus crisis as an alternative to the cancelled Transat races, will take the fleet from Les Sables d'Olonne past Iceland to a waypoint in the Arctic Circle, back south around the Azores and back to Les Sables d'Olonne as a prologue to the Vendée Globe. "This will be the only top-class solo race in which the skippers can take part before the Vendée Globe start on 8 November," explains Jacques Caraës, who is in charge of the race management for both the "Polar Race" and the Vendée Globe. This would allow the sailors to get back into solo mode after the long forced break due to the coronavirus, as well as giving them the chance to put their new or revised boats through their paces technically. "For eleven skippers, it is also an opportunity to qualify for the solo race around the world," says Caraës.