Germany’s Boris Herrmann has been working up to racing the Vendée Globe since he was a teenager. He has built his experience step by step, from winning a Class40 race round the world race to racing fast multihulls and inshore race boats, to records attempts and successes with Frances Joyon and Giovanni Soldini. Supported by the Yacht Club of Monaco and more recently Kuehne + Nagel, Herrmann has been absent from the pontoon, instead staying super safe at home in Hamburg.
So Boris your boat is ready at the dock and you are home, how does it feel?
I am a scared person sometimes and I had these nightmare vision of doing the last delivery of doing the last delivery and something happening. I would be too scared to sail it in these final days. The boat is on the dock with double fenders and double mooring lines. No one is allowed on board at all. We are so close now that I don’t want anything to go wrong I am a bit paranoid about this
How is it being at home rather than in Les Sables d’Olonne as you had planned?
It is good and safe, but it is sad as well as we had rented a big house out in the country, a huge villa, we would have had all my family there, my grandparents, Pierre Casiraghi, sponsors and a chef, guests and so on, it would have been a good big group, but it has all fallen through. But now the sponsors only come on start day. Our parents can’t come, they are old and at risk. It is a bit like the Germanic view, we are maybe more restricting ourselves. It is hard to have guests from Germany as they have to quarantine for at least five days as well as taking a test.
You talk about the German way, you were pretty much first boat to arrive in Les Sables d’Olonne, was that always the plan, the target to be first boat at the race dock?
Initially we set a plan in January to have everything ready for the week before the start, with my agenda all fixed, sport, media slots, and so on. But in light of what has happened we rescheduled everything to be ready at the delivery and for me to go home immediately. Because it is so difficult to come back and forwards too many times. A month ago we rescheduled, we pushed through with everyone working the weekends. Now it feels good. It was tough. So it was not ‘the German way, if you like’ to be here first for the sake of being here first but in saying that I am rigorous with deadlines, totally rigorous. I hate the idea that someone would now go on board to service a winch, for example. We have had four years to prepare. I told my guys, the moment we hit the dock in Les Sables d’Olonne we are ready, with everything. If not, we have failed.
Do you sail in a Germanic way, driven by numbers, performance data and sticking to processes for example, very disciplined in your routine or once you are on the water are you more relaxed and free flowing over your experience?
Yes, it had to change with the new foils because now for example, because the boat can see more load. It can put the rig at risk, the hull structure at risk in extreme situations and so for example also with too much sail and ballast in a big sea state and wind I could break my foils. So of course now we have sail to numbers. And I ask the other French skippers a lot and some of them seem less concerned about their numbers. If I walk down the dock and ask ‘what is your alarm number’ what frequency do you measure your loads and what is your alarm number exactly. Most of the skippers don’t know, or wont say it. Their technical teams are very strong and so the skippers are leaving the responsibility to them, And some skippers I guess sail under the assumption that the foil will never break. They look at the rig loads and that is their measure maybe. I discuss it a lot with Alex and he has numbers and I think actually Alex is quite scientific with these matters.
Tell us about your sail programme, you are as the only skipper in the fleet with Quantum Sails, what choices have you made?
One big difference is the others mostly have a fractional code zero (a sail used to sail upwind in light winds or downiwind in heavier airs, set to a halyard 7/8ths of the way up the mast and to the bowsprit) they set that to the bowsprit, I have it set to the stem (bow) and I call it a jib top or J1.5. That gives me a nice balance, but again it is prudence. If I break the bowsprit I can still use it. And the sail is further away from the sails on the bowsprit, I can have it up as well as a gennaker or a Code Zero then it is easier to peel or furl one and unfurl the other. It is a system which is easier to manage. And I have no A2, no big kite. Two or three of the top guys have big kites, like Thomas Ruyant and L’Occitaine (Armel Tripon). There was a bit of debate with us but with the big gennaker I can furl it in the gusts and leave it furled. Quantum have a very strong design group and work with the America’s Cup now and have some interesting ideas on shapes. I find that a strong points of Quantum.
Do you use OSCAR, the OFNI detecting system and a pinger?
Yes, definitely. I am very thankful to the guys that developed it. It is cool to push the safety technology. We are the only team which has linked it to the autopilot. So we have programmed an overlay to the pilot which when we detect an object we bear away and when we detect an object upwind we head up so the boat stops. The OSCAR people were quite excited about us doing that.
And we have the pinger system too for whales and dolphins too. I switch it on as soon as I go faster than, say 10 knots because other wise I don’t want to create any additional noise in the ocean.
What is your real sweet spot compared with the other boats?
When the new boats are on their J2 and I can use my J1.5, my jib top, they can be slightly under powered and not yet on their FR0, and we have a really nice balance at 90-110 deg TWA, maybe 15-20kts, we can nicely carry the sail and we are really fast
Tell us about your foils?
I would say to credit to VPLP they had the foil concept they developed for MACSF then they applied them for our boat, obviously with a lot of studies about the longitudinal position for example, but what you do with these foils we can do really well, there is nothing we would change. The boat is seaworthy and goes smoothly through the sea and has this sweet spot when it goes really fast to keep up with the top boats. We have some weak points, the foil is not so long so it is a bit more draggy. So, say at 120TWA in 12kts we would be pushing water, stuck where the longer Verdier foils they are more performing. They are very small windows when they will take off earlier but during this Vendée this could make a big difference, for example in a day of 12 knots that could be 100 miles. For foils I never wanted to be in the experimental side. I wanted to take something I could see in reality on another boat. I take these foils in full confidence and they make life liveable on board
Do you feel you know yourself or will this be a voyage of discovery to find parts of Boris you don’t yet know?
Yes, for sure. It will be the longest I will be solo on a boat, and so I will see how I react to that. I feel I know myself, the ocean and the boat. I am quite confident. What I don’t know is that I have been quite fortunate until now in my sailing I have never had a difficult moment, a catastrophe. How am I going to react when the shit hits the fan, if I have a structural problem , the boom breaks, the mainsail rips or something like that. I just don’t know how I will react if I can only have two reefs and my performance is compromised. For my mentality that would be a huge challenge, to give up on the race position I am after. After all these years that is what worries us all.
From that perspective do you believe in luck, in fate, in destiny? Do think your destiny is decided before you cast off the dock?
I read an interview where Alex said ‘you make your own luck’. I believe in a destiny for sure, to 80 per cent. And 20 per cent something can happen, like Bilou when a whale popped up when he was leading the race (in 2008). He had a perfectly prepared boat and he had made his luck, he had done everything he could, but then still he hit the whale, you have to see that as the 20% of chance factor, to luck. You have to pray a little bit to the gods of the sea. And I will give them whisky once in a while.