Oliver
HEER

Originally from Zurich (Switzerland), Olivier has been passionate about ocean racing, and more specifically the Vendée Globe, since he was very young. He has dedicated his entire career to competitive sailing, both as a skipper and as a key supporter of ocean racing campaigns.

In 2018, Oliver, then 30, joined Alex Thomson's HUGO BOSS team as a boat captain. Having started as a junior crew member with Alex Thomson Racing, he progressed to become responsible for the British skipper's innovative machine. They sailed over 40,000 miles together until Alex encouraged him to start his own project.

In 2022, the Swiss sailor acquired the former IMOCA PURE - Best Western on which Romain Attanasio had finished his Vendée Globe the previous year, with the aim of participating in the next round the world race. Today, armed with the Farr IMOCA design born under the name of Gitana 80, Heer has just completed the first key stage in her qualification for the solo round the world race by finishing 32nd in the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe.

The race did not go as planned, due to a collision with one of his competitors a few minutes after the start, but Heer is taking many positives from it as he intensifies his search for funding (read more here)

After a winter dedicated to repairing and consolidating his 60-foot boat, Oliver will take part in the Rolex Fastnet Race for the fourth time, second in the IMOCA class!

In 2023, he lined up for the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre but was forced to retire just one day into the race due to damage to the port D1 of his standing rigging, which had detached from the mast of his IMOCA.

In November 2024, he set off on his first Vendée Globe aboard his IMOCA Tut gut, with Burgerstein Vitamine as the title partner of his project. In January, he lost his large gennaker. Despite the damage, the Swiss sailor completed the round-the-world race in 29th position.

As soon as he returned to land, it was clear to Oliver that this round-the-world race would certainly not be his last. One year after finishing the 2024–2025 Vendée Globe, he announced that he would embark on another Vendée Globe campaign, this time aboard Teamwork – Team SNEF.