Boris HERRMANN

IMOCA Globe Series5th
Points334 pts
Age42 (5/28/81)
Top performance5th of the Barcelona World Race 2010-11, 5th of the Vendée Globe 2020-21
Joined Imoca on2010
TeamTEAM MALIZIA
BaseMONACO
PartnersYacht Club de Monaco, EFG Bank, Kuehne + Nagel, MSC, Hapag Lloyd, Zurich Deutschland, Schütz Composites
CommitmentMALIZIA OCEAN CHALLENGE

Profile

In 2001 Boris was the youngest and only German to participate in the Mini Transat race, a singlehanded yacht race across the Atlantic where he finished in eleventh place. In 2006 Herrmann finished second in the European Championship as well as in the German Championship in the 505 class.

In 2008 Herrmann sailed his Class 40 yacht "Beluga Racer" into second place in the Artemis Transat, the oldest transatlantic race for yachts sailed singlehanded. Boris went on to win the Portimão Global Ocean Race, a five-leg round the world race on Class 40 boats. He and his co-skipper Felix Oehme won three of the five legs of the race.

In 2010, he raced in the Barcelona World Race with co-skipper Ryan Breymaier and finished in 5th place. During 2016 Boris crewed on the GC32 Malizia as part of Pierre Casiraghi's team for the GC32 Racing Tour.

The Malizia IMOCA project was founded in 2017 by Pierre Casiraghi and Boris Herrmann with the support of the Yacht Club de Monaco in order to realise a dream of sailing in the Vendee Globe and have Monaco's commitment to the sport realised through this ambition. In August 2017, with the support of The Yacht Club de Monaco, Malizia II was founded and Boris and Pierre sailed her in the Rolex Fastnet Race and bagged the third spot on the podium. In 2018 they competed in the Monaco Globe Series and then Boris went on to compete singlehanded in the Route du Rhum 2018 securing 5th place.

In 2020 Kuehne + Nagel joined the team as a joint title partner and Malizia was renamed as Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco with major updates to the boat to create a competitive edge. 

On November 8, 2020, Boris Herrmann will start the Vendée Globe. Throughout the race, the skipper will have shown his seamanship and his ability to make his boat move quickly without damaging it. His story, so beautiful, however, took a somewhat dramatic turn when, a few hours from the finish, he collided with a fishing boat. He managed to reach Les Sables d'Olonne, with a damaged boat, and thus finished his race in 80 days! 


The Malizia Ocean Challenge

In 2018, Boris and Pierre founded the Malizia Ocean Challenge project.This initiative aims to combine sailing, science and education to get children fascinated about sailing and ocean topics whilst teaching them about climate change and to love our seas with our kids’ ocean challenge kit. We have got over 10,000 children involved in this topic to date. At the same time, we carry an on-board sensor to measure the CO2 in the ocean in remote, hard to reach locations and this data is then sent to our scientific partners at Geomar and the Max Planck Institute.

Sailing Highlights

2023 : Retour à La Base - 4th
2023 : Transat Jacques Vabre - 7th
2023 : Défi Azimut-Lorient Agglomération - 7th
2023 : The Ocean Race - 3rd
2022 : Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe - 24th
2022 : Défi Azimut-Lorient Agglomération - 3rd
2020-2021 : Vendée Globe - 5th
2020 : Défi Azimut-Lorient Agglomération - 7th
2020 : Vendée Arctique - 7th
2019 : Transat Jacques Vabre - 12th
2019 : Défi Azimut-Lorient Agglomération - DNS
2019 : Rolex Fastnet Race - 7th
2019 : Guyader Bermudes 1000 Race - 6th
2018 : Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe - 5th
2018 : Défi Azimut-Lorient Agglomération - 5th
2018 : Monaco Globe Series - 7th
2017 : Transat Jacques Vabre - 4th
2017 : Rolex Fastnet Race - 2nd
2010-2011 : Barcelona World Race - 5th
Other highlights

2007 : Mondial 505 - 9th
2006 : Mondial 505 - 7th
2006 : EuroCup 505 - 2nd
2005 : EuroCup 505 - Winner
2001 : Transgascogne (Mini 6.50) - 4th
2001 : Mini Fastnet - 10th
2001 : Mini Transat - 11th

Boat

Name MALIZIA - SEAEXPLORER
Sail numberMON 1297
ArchitectVPLP
Construction2022, Multiplast
Length18,28 m
BeamNC
Draught4,5 m
WeightNC
Mast height29 m
Mast typeWing mast
FoilsYes
Sail area max.
UpwindNC
DownwindNC
© Jean-Louis Carli
© Marin LE ROUX - polaRYSE
© Yann Riou - polaRSE / Malizia
© © Antoine Auriol | Team Malizia
© Bernard Le Bars/Alea
© © Vincent Curutchet/Alea
© Christophe Favreau / Défi Azimut
©