
Boris Herrmann
Skipper
German yachtsman Boris Herrmann has raced around the world four times: doublehanded in 2009 with fellow countryman Felix Oehme on a Class 40 yacht when they won the five-leg Portimao Global Ocean Race; in 2010 doublehanded with Ryan Breymaier (USA) on an IMOCA in the nonstop Barcelona World Race; fully-crewed in 2015-16 aboard the maxi multihull IDEC Sport; and then solo in the Vendée Globe 2020-21 – when he finished fifth to become the first German sailor to complete the gruelling nonstop circumnavigation.
Herrmann (41) sailed as navigator with Italian skipper Giovani Soldini on several record-setting open ocean passages, including in 2013 the Gold Route from New York to San Francisco aboard a modified VO70 – formerly Ericsson 3 from The Ocean Race 2008-09.
In 2015 Herrmann was one of Chinese skipper Guo Chuan’s four crew aboard the 97-foot trimaran Qingdao China when they set the first world record time for a non-stop sail through the treacherous Northeast Passage of the Arctic Ocean from the Russian port of Murmansk to the Bering Strait – officially the furthest north a racing sailboat has ever sailed.
In 2016 – together with Pierre Casiraghi, vice-president of the Yacht Club de Monaco – Herrmann founded Team Malizia.
Previous participation in The Ocean Race:
Taking part in The Ocean Race for the first time.