After 67 days at sea, Boris Herrmann has given himself a serious chance of winning his Vendée Globe premiere. Experts have been predicting this for days. Now the 39-year-old skipper of the "Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco" has said it himself and quite calmly: "There is definitely a chance of winning." On Thursday afternoon, he had already worked his way up to fifth place. At the top, "Apivia" skipper Charlie Dalin had slightly extended his lead over Louis Burton by 20 nautical miles. A further 35 nautical miles behind, "LinkedOut" skipper Thomas Ruyant remained in the lead with a broken wing. In fourth place, Damien Seguin on "Groupe Apicil" still couldn't be shaken off without any foils. Yannick Bestaven, the big loser of the weather developments of the past few days, fell behind Herrmann with "Maître Coq IV" and is now almost 100 nautical miles behind Charlie Dalin.
Here Boris Herrman tells us what he will dream of when he is back home in Hamburg
In the online press conference, Boris Herrmann commented on the latest developments, his own prospects and his longing for the end of this maritime marathon. Here are excerpts of his statements on the individual topics:
The course of the final phase:
The alarms keep going off. Nerves are on edge. The boat is foiling under full load. We'll be at the equator in three days. Until then, the wind will be calm. That makes it a little easier. We could have strong winds again in the north-east trade wind. Then we'll enter the westerly wind zone with its low-pressure areas and head home on a beam reach. The Doldrums are still there in between. If the first ones stop there, we might be able to gain a few more miles.
About your own mental state:
I'm very tense at the moment. Like almost never before. We've hardly ever had these foiling conditions. The boat and our bodies are taking hard knocks. At 22 knots, we're already exceeding all the load values. Then it's red alert. It's like this about half the time.
To the competition ahead of him:
I ride my race. What others do is more of a reference for me. Burton surprises me. You haven't seen him like this in the past. I didn't expect that. Dalin and Ruyant are so secretive, they don't tell you what's going on. But I don't care whether they can use foils or not. Apparently yes. Dalin is travelling at 16 knots. That's not possible without foils.
Among the major losses suffered by former frontrunner Yannick Bestaven:
This mainly has to do with sequences and the development of the weather situation. It's nobody's fault. It's bad luck for Yannick and good luck for us. It has to do with how the high pressure area behaved in relation to the South American cold front. That's a weather barrier. It was more pronounced. With lower winds for the first ones to get out of there. The scenario left Yannick no option but to take a very westerly route. The computer can't work out when we should slow down or stop. Sometimes it would be better if we stopped for 24 hours and then continued at full speed. But that's not how it works. The paradox happened here. I think it happens more often than you think. It happened back then between Michel Desjoyeaux and Ellen MacArthur or between Armel Le Cléac'h and Alex Thomson, who was able to make up hundreds of miles in such a situation. We see this almost regularly in the Atlantic. Yannick also had his luck in this race. And now he has his bad luck. It all evens out in the end. And in the end, the good guys come out on top. It would be strange if a team like Apivia was beaten by an older boat. And Yannick is still in the match. It could have been worse. He still has every opportunity to play his cards.
On his sailing style and the question of whether he will risk more in the final sprint:
I don't think so, to be honest. I watch myself a bit sometimes. But I think I sail like I did at the beginning. There are always compromises. You're never left in peace. Right now, for example, there's a lull. There's a huge cloud. I'm doing my best. The unique situation that we might be able to win the race doesn't drive me crazy right now. I'm already keeping to my load values. I'm sailing the boat as I practised in training.
On loneliness after more than two months at sea and the question of what he misses most:
I'm looking forward to arriving. To seeing people. My family. Just being able to sleep in a bed. Getting rid of the pressure. I can hold out for another two weeks. Then that's enough. Then I'll be fed up too.
For mental planning games on board with a view to the intended participation in The Ocean Race and how it will feel to sail around the world with a crew on an Imoca rather than alone:
Yes, I sometimes imagine that. That would be much, much easier. You could sleep for three or four hours while you're awake, you could give up sometimes. You don't have that here. That's the biggest difference. Four people is a cool number of people. With four people, two can sail, one sleeps and one is on standby. That means you can utilise the boat 100 per cent. That will rarely be the case here...
The successful race to catch up over the past few days:
People always think it has something to do with the skipper. But it's 99 per cent to do with the weather, the boat and the configuration. I don't leave more than four per cent on the track, even if I'm tired before Cape Horn. Catching up is a gift of the weather situation. Also a result of the fact that the boat is still in good shape. Not much has changed for me, except that I'm now suffering less from the cold. It's not much easier here now than in the Southern Ocean. These foiling Imocas are tough boats, very demanding, not comparable to the boats with centreboards. A ship with foils simply accelerates until it breaks.
Motivation and encouragement from outside:
Yes, I've heard from a few sailors that I really appreciate. Yann Eliès wrote this morning: "You can win the race." Giovanni Soldini got in touch. What gives me the most mental strength is talking to my wife, Birte. Motivation is not the problem. The nervous strain, staying calm, finding sleep - that's working quite well at the moment. I have the right level of tension. It's not that I'm letting myself go completely crazy.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
