News
6.8.26
Swiss offshore sailor Oliver Heer will take on The Ocean Race 2027
Swiss offshore sailor Oliver Heer has announced that his team, Embrace The Challenge, will compete in The Ocean Race 2027.
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| Age | 30 (12/30/95) |
|---|---|
| Top performance | 3x World Champion paddleboarde |
| Joined Imoca on | 2025 |
| Team | OLIVER HEER OCEAN RACING |
| Base | Gosport (UK) |
From Sunshine Coast (Australia), Lincoln Dews grew up on the water in a sailing family. He first made his name on a paddleboard: three-time SUP race world champion, course record holder on the Yukon River Quest (715 km), seven-time starter of the Molokai to Oahu (52 km). In 2016, he represented Australia at the ISA World Championships in Fiji.
In 2023, he made the move into professional offshore racing, joining the IMOCA L'Occitane en Provence project alongside Clarisse Crémer. Performance, technical, sailing, he embedded himself across every layer of the programme, logging over 10,000 miles aboard the Verdier design and seeing the campaign through to the 2024 Vendée Globe.
In parallel, he stepped into the maxi world, aboard Magic Carpet and Black Jack, most notably at the 2025 Admiral's Cup — a breadth of experience that sharpened his reading of offshore racing at every scale.
What followed was written in crew mode: a leg of The Ocean Race Europe 2025 with Canada Ocean Racing, then joining Oliver Heer's Embrace The Challenge in 2026 as co-skipper and performance analyst for The Ocean Race Atlantic and the three years ahead.
Alongside all this, Lincoln holds a degree in physics and has trained in data science — a dual skill set he now puts to use in marine instrumentation and weather routing.
| Name | EMBRACE THE CHALLENGE |
|---|---|
| Sail number | SUI 8 |
| Architect | VPLP |
| Construction | 2018, CDK Technologies - Port La Forêt |
| Former names | CHARAL, TEAMWORK - TEAM SNEF |
| Length | 18,28 m |
| Beam | 5,85 m |
| Draught | 4,50 m |
| Weight | 8 tonnes |
| Mast height | 29 m |
| Mast type | Wing mast |
| Foils | Yes |
| Sail area max. | |
| Upwind | 320 m2 |
| Downwind | 600 m2 |
Swiss offshore sailor Oliver Heer has announced that his team, Embrace The Challenge, will compete in The Ocean Race 2027.
•••Swiss offshore sailor Oliver Heer has officially unveiled his new IMOCA, Embrace The Challenge, introducing a bold new identity inspired by the weather systems that define life at sea.
•••The epic race will take the mixed-crew IMOCA fleet from New York to Lorient, France on a new high-speed transatlantic route.
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