© Jean-Louis Carli / Aléa

With 8 days to go until the big start, we continue our presentation of the crews competing in The Ocean Race Europe 2025. In this third installment, we spend time with Alan Roura.

The Swiss skipper, who has competed three times in the Vendée Globe, has made no secret of his desire to take part in the Ocean Race. The Ocean Race Europe is a first for AMAALA and a new objective: to train young Swiss talent in ocean racing. Seven skippers have been selected from around forty, and all of them intend to demonstrate their skills during the seven weeks of competition. The team departed the shores of Britain last Thursday for Kiel.

Alan Roura has grown up a lot. In 2017, the Swiss raced his first Vendée Globe. Eight years later, and he has three times in the most famous solo around-the-world race, the last of which he completed last February.

Since 2021, he has embarked on a major challenge by taking over the former Hugo Boss, a monohull that is particularly difficult to handle, and has convinced a renowned Swiss company, Hublot, to join him. After his last circumnavigation, Alan was eager to start a new cycle and immerse himself in new challenges.

Willingness to create unity in the team

But his prospects after the Vendée Globe became uncertain, like those of many skippers, and Alan set out in search of new sponsors to go with him. Then, the support of AMAALA — an ultra-innovative tourism project that will soon see the light of day on the shores of the Red Sea — changed everything. 

"The Ocean Race has long attracted me. I'm looking forward to discovering new races, new places, to break the routine. Being at the start of The Ocean Race Europe 2025 will be a first step towards the round-the-world race in 2027."

And that enthusiasm shines through with Alan. Although he thoroughly enjoys sailing solo, the idea of being the orchestra conductor of a crew on board excites him: "I look forward to putting together a team where each person can give the best of themselves and make the others grow,"he says with a smile.

With Simon Koster, who has been with him for several years, and Conrad Colman, who has embarked on this adventure alongside him, he has formed a collective called the Swiss Offshore Team.

"The goal? To reach out to the large number of Swiss talents and enable them to take a step forward in IMOCA. They launched a call for applications, which was a success: they received more than 40 applications, including ten women.

"The idea is to transmit the idea of the IMOCA to the Swiss team, to pass on what we know, to train talented skippers," says Alan. "We have chosen not only the best, but above all those who will be able to work together for the good of the team. After the selection phase, seven sailors (plus the three substitutes) will take turns to take part in The Ocean Race Europe legs this summer. These sailors have honed their skills in Mini 6.50s (Yann Burkhalter, Félix Oberle, Mathis Bourgnon), Olympic sailing (Lucie de Gennes), MOD70s (Rebecca Gmuer) or even bigger boats (Jessica Berthoud)."

For some, ocean racing is a long lineage, like Jessica (whose father competed in the Whitbread, formerly The Ocean Race) and Mathis Bourgnon, son of Yvan and nephew of Laurent, whose name is familiar to all. Each member of the crew demonstrates in his or her own way the extraordinary pool of talent in Switzerland. Although the main objective is to get their feet wet in the IMOCA class, Alan, Simon and Conrad will give their all during the race. Even if we're a step behind the others in terms of sheer speed, we're not going to stop at anything," says Alan. "It's going to be very tough and we know we're going to have our card to play as well."

Source : THE OCEAN RACE