Finishing in early morning rain German skipper Boris Herrmann added to his growing list of solo Transatlantic successes today when he took second place in the IMOCA class on the 13th edition of the Route du Rhum Destination, the solo ocean sprint from Saint Malo to Gudeloupe. Concluding his first solo race on his new Malizia 4, which was just launched in July and is one of the two newest boats among the race's 22 starters, Herrmann crossed the finish line off Pointe-à-Pitre at 08:10.36hrs UTC (04:10.36hrs local) finishing 1d 2hrs 56m 27 sec behind the runaway French winner Corentin Horeau (MACSF).
Boris race in numbers
Finish time 08:10:36hrs UTC (04:10.36hrs local)
Elapsed time 10d 20h 08m 36s
Delta to first 1d 2h 56m 27s
Speed on ortho course 13.57kts
Distance sailed 3887.29 nms
Actual average 14.494kts
Showing the benefit of his tens of thousands of deep ocean racing miles, Herrmann sailed into second place on the third day after the start, and then got the better of the heavily fancied Franco-Brit Sam Goodchild in the middle section of the race to then hold second all the way to the finish line.
After back-to-back second places in 2024’s solo races to and from the USA, The Transat and The New York Vendée, his result today is his best ever finish on this Route du Rhum course, a classic, historic race which is precious to his strong sense of ocean racing history. The 45 year old native of Hamburg has one of the most ambitious programmes, Malizia 4 having already raced one crewed Transatlantic in August and now heading to Alicante, Spain to prepare for January’s The Ocean Race, the crewed race around the world.
'
Before the Route du Rhum started on Sunday 1st November many observers had Herrmann as an outsider for the hotly contested podium. Compared to others he had not competed in the season’s solo races and his boat was either not launched and so it was considered he lacked hard miles with his new IMOCA. But once more he has proven that he is a reliable bet in solo mode, excellent at looking after himself, his boat and the equipment.
And he proved his new boat is quick in all the areas he had sought improvements over his previous IMOCA, Malizia 3. It is an excellent start on the path to his third consecutive Vendée Globe, a reminder he has all the skills and the hardware to better his fifth place in 2020-21.
Boris Herrmann’s Race in Numbers.
Boris backstory
After cutting his teeth racing high performance 505 and 49er skiff dinghies and the Mini Transat, Boris Herrmann won the five stage, two-handed Global Ocean Race in a 40 foot Class 40 in 2008. Having grown up in northern Germany following all the major French ocean races and sailors, his dream was always to race the Vendée Globe. After setting up the Malizia sailing team with Monaco's Pierre Casiraghii, to race under the flag of the Yacht Club de Monaco they found enough funding support fo Boris to race Maliza Seaexplorer to fifth place in the 2020-2021 Vendée Globe.
His steady but accomplished course, focusing on making high average miles and looking after his boat and himself meant he arrived at Cape Horn with a strong chance of a top three finish, or possibly even winning. Along the way his inspiring daily reports, broadcast on national TV at home in Germany, were inspirational to a country locked down by the global pandemic. And as the first all German skipper to take on the race, his fifth place finish made him something of a national sporting hero in a country which so far had not known ocean racing.
HIs success has allowed him to build his Malizia team into one of the world’s major racing stables, building a new IMOCA for the 2024-5 race and now the new Malizia 4 ahead of the 2028-29 race. This is his third Route du Rhum and his best finish to date was previously fifth in 2018 in 20 boat fleet won by Paul Meilhat. He and the Malizia team are about to embark on their second challenge for The Ocean Race, the crewed race round the world.
Boris; Route du Rhum Race Sailing his first solo race on his new Malizia 4 Boris Herrmann made a solid start to his third Route du Rhum and although he does not match the pace of the duo who led out of the Channel, Ambrogio Beccaria (Allagrande Mapei) and Sam Goodchild (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) the German skipper holds sixth, pacing Jérémie Beyou (Charal) initially. The first two days were very much a boatspeed race and he was not quite able to hold the top speeds of the leaders, still finding the best solo modes and getting used to his new boat. Herrmann was slightly further south as they approached the first front. When the front then started to move west a little and only Corentin Horeau (MACSF) got through, Boris was already positioned to the east of it and he and Francesca Clapcich (11th Hour Racing) are able to angle south while the other leading boats such as Goodchild and Beccaria become slowed by the light winds as the front expands back west. So Boris and Francesca make a nice gain and are second and third. Goodchild recovers miles coming out of the first big low pressure and he and Boris have a head to head, the MACIF Santé Prévoyance skipper getting back up to second until he starts to have technical problems which include a foil issue and mainsail damage. At one point they are more than 300 miles behind but Herrmann and Goodchild reduce that deficit to. In the big stormy conditions Herrmann did what he does well, keeping the boat moving well, keeping it intact and not breaking himself or the boat. In doing so he held his advantage over Sam who had his technical problems and over Francesa Clapcich who lost her bowsprit. And so credit to Boris Herrmann for scoring his third consecutive second place on a solo Transatlantic, but also to the Malizia technical team who have ensured the boat is reliable.