Team Malizia is ready to race: today, Boris Herrmann’s sailing team kicks off their busy race calendar for the upcoming years by participating in the Défi Azimut 2022, their first race with their new Malizia - Seaexplorer race yacht. This year, the international team has grown its sailing crew, launched their new race machine on 19 July and christened their boat in Boris Herrmann’s hometown Hamburg only a week ago, during the Malizia Ocean Festival to which over 12,000 visitors attended.

The race yacht, carrying the striking United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on its sails, was delivered back by the team from the Hanseatic city to Brittany just in time to take part in its first IMOCA race this week.

The Défi Azimut - Lorient Agglomération is an event taking place off the coast of Lorient, Brittany, over the course of six days (13 to 18 September).

The event includes speed runs and races, and is part of the IMOCA GLOBE SERIES 2021-25 Championship. An impressively large fleet will compete in this 12th edition: 30 IMOCAs will be on the starting line. This comes as no surprise as the Défi Azimut is the last match between boats of the IMOCA class before the Route du Rhum 2022 and The Ocean Race 2023. All the IMOCA race yachts competing in the round-the-world race next year are also participating in this week’s event.

Malizia - Seaexplorer will take part in Wednesday’s speed runs, hosting guests to experience sailing on the new boat for the first time. During the 48-hour Azimut on Thursday, Team Malizia will sail a looped circuit in the Atlantic in The Ocean Race crew mode, with Boris Herrmann (41, German) as Skipper, Will Harris (28, English), Rosalin Kuiper (27, Dutch) and Nico Lunven (39, French) as Co-Skippers and Antoine Auriol (37, French-German) as Onboard Reporter. The race tracker will be available on the team’s and the competition’s websites for anyone to follow live. The images Antoine Auriol will capture will also be shared for everyone to feel as if they were sailing onboard Malizia - Seaexplorer. The week will conclude a tour of the Île de Groix on Sunday.

The Défi Azimut is the last crewed competition before The Ocean Race, starting on 15 January 2023 in Alicante, Spain. Until then, the team will practice in crew configuration during training sessions, such as those at Port La Forêt, and during deliveries, like the return from Guadeloupe after the Route du Rhum at the end of November.

Team Malizia is joined in its effort to be one of the most exciting sailing teams and a champion for sustainability and climate action by seven main partners: EFG International, Zurich Group Germany, Kuehne+Nagel, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, Hapag-Lloyd, Schütz and The Yacht Club de Monaco.

Boris Herrmann’s offshore sailing team launched their new IMOCA race yacht as scheduled today, Tuesday 19 July in Lorient, Race some 18 months after design began.

Designed by VPLP, Malizia - Seaexplorer was built at Multiplast in nearby Vannes over the past 12 months, using “advanced” engineering technology and craftsmanship. The yacht will get its first big test in the Route du Rhum this November, ahead of the next edition of The Ocean Race in the new year.

“Learning from our experience in the past four years and in particular the Vendée Globe 2020-21, we wanted a boat that can maintain high average speeds even in rough sea conditions,” skipper Herrmann said at today’s launch event.

“Therefore, together with the architects from VPLP, we chose softer and rounder hull lines and a curved bow. We also made the boat even more solid than the previous one and completely redesigned the [ergonomics] and living space.”

Malizia - Seaexplorer carries the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals wheel and its hull features the team’s slogan, “A Race We Must Win - Climate Action Now”, with the aim of creating awareness and inspiring ambitious climate action.

Herrmann will skipper the boat in the Route du Rhum this November across the Atlantic from Saint-Malo to Guadeloupe, and his first single-handed regatta since the Vendée Globe.

Then from January, he will join co-skippers Will Harris and Rosalin Kuiper on Malizia - Seaexplorer for the round-the-world challenge of The Ocean Race — another test of the new boat, this time in the rough conditions of the Southern Ocean — with the ultimate goal of the Vendée Globe 2024-25 in sight.

Team Malizia is one of 14 IMOCA teams registered for The Ocean Race, which starts from Alicante in Spain on 15 January.

A notable feature of the new yacht is its mini-laboratory, the Ocean Pack, that will allow the team to continue to collect ocean data such as sea surface CO2 levels in remote regions like the Southern Ocean.

The boat, which sails under the flag of Monaco, will be christened during the Malizia Ocean Festival on 6-7 September in its home port Hamburg, where skipper Boris Herrmann lives and Team Malizia is based.

At 1950 hrs UTC this evening while racing in third place, some 90 miles from the Vendée Globe finish line off Les Sables d’Olonne, German skipper Boris Herrmann (SeaExplorer-Yacht Club de Monaco) came into collision with a fishing boat.

He reports damage to his starboard foil and some other damage but he is unharmed and has secured the boat and is proceeding towards the finish line at reduced speed.

The collision damaged the race yacht, so Herrmann could only continue at a reduced speed. Boris himself was uninjured, and there were no casualties on the fishing trawler either.

"Suddenly I saw a wall next to me, the boats got tangled up, I heard men shouting," Herrmann reports. His vessel's bowsprit was broken off, its headsail torn, and the starboard hydrofoil was damaged. Most critically, the starboard shroud broke off, the cable that secures the mast and stops it from falling over. In the hours following the collision, Herrmann worked feverishly to replace the shroud in order to reach his final destination safely.

In a video message, Boris Herrmann recounts the collision that shattered all dreams of a German victory. "I have never experienced anything like this at sea before," Herrmann said, "but the most important thing is that no one was hurt."

The collision is another test in the toughest race in the world, but not one that will keep Boris from seeing it through to the end. On Thursday morning, the 39-year-old skipper from Hamburg plans to sail his ship across the finish line off Les Sables d'Olonne, after 81 days at sea. Onshore, his wife Birte, his daughter and his team are already eagerly awaiting his return and proud of his great achievement.