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.

Gentoo Sailing Team has launched its campaign to compete in the 2024 Vendée Globe, led by Skipper James Harayda, who is aiming to be the youngest sailor to compete in the 2024 edition of the race.

The Vendée Globe is considered the pinnacle of ocean racing, and one of the toughest sporting challenges available. The race is a solo, non-stop, and unassisted circumnavigation of the planet.

The next edition of the race, commencing in November 2024, will be limited to only 40 entrants. To be considered for entry in the Vendée Globe, Skippers must qualify themselves by competing in several pre-determined races, taking place between 2022 and the start of the Vendée Globe in 2024.

Gentoo Sailing Team was founded two years ago by British sailor James Harayda, who has competed in high-level offshore racing around the world, has twice been crowned as British Champion in the Doublehanded Class and represented the country in the Doublehanded Offshore European Championships.

Ahead of the push for Vendée Globe, Gentoo Sailing Team has unveiled their new IMOCA 60 racing yacht, a 60-foot, hydro foiling boat that previously broke the record as the first IMOCA to cover 500 nautical miles in 24 hours, set by fellow Brit Alex Thompson.

Dee Caffari (left) and James Harayda

Gentoo Sailing is committed to the environment, with sustainability at its core. At the 2024 Vendée Globe race, the team will be carbon neutral, and when it aims to compete in the 2028 edition, it’s striving to be able to do so carbon negative.

During the race, Harayda will be utilising data to support his challenge and give a performance advantage while racing. He will utilise data across three key areas; The Boat (speed, position, load, power usage etc.), The Environment (wind speed, direction, air and water temperature, salinity and pollution levels), The Man (heart rate, sleep patterns, calorie intake and exertion etc.).

In 2020 the 24-year-old teamed up with Dee Caffari MBE, who in 2006 became the first woman to sail solo non-stop around the world, westwards, against prevailing winds and currents. The offshore sailing icon also completed the Vendée Globe in 2009, becoming the first woman to sail solo around the world in both directions. Caffari and Harayda initially teamed up and raced successfully together in the Mixed Doublehanded Offshore class with an aim to win a gold medal for Great Britain in the 2024 Paris Olympics. On the cancellation of the class by the IOC, the pair refocused and developed this Vendée Globe campaign.

James Harayda said: "The Vendée Globe has always been the pinnacle of ocean racing, just finishing this race is an incredible feat, winning it is simply heroic. There is also so much more to this event than the race itself. The journey to the start line is considered one of the hardest parts of the race - the funding required, racing calendar, preparation needed, technical know-how, and just the sheer scale of the project is unbelievable and cannot be underestimated.

“For me, this race is about achieving something that very few people ever have. Less people have done this than been into space or climbed to the top of Everest. It is also about using this platform to show the world that being sustainable, in all uses of the word, does not come at a cost to performance.

“Our aim as a team is build our skills, knowledge, and partnerships through 2024 with an aim to win the Vendée Globe in 2028, making me the youngest and first-ever Brit to do so. I have a fantastic team around me which will be growing as we progress and I am confident that given the right resources, we can win this race in 2028.”

In addition to the Vendée Globe campaign, Gentoo Sailing Team has this year launched its Youth Development Program, with Caffari as the Trustee, and backed by the Ian Atkins Keelboat Award (IAKA). The program has selected 10 male and 10 female sailors, aged 16-23, and from all different backgrounds to race on its youth boat in the UK JOG and RORC offshore racing season.

The programme's aim is to offer a clear, achievable, and timebound pathway for the young sailors involved. All the sailors have different ambitions within the sport and Gentoo Sailing Team is working with each of the young sailors in order to open as many relevant doors as possible to help them realise these ambitions. The sailors will benefit from mentoring, on and off-the-water coaching, technical workshops, and offshore racing. The sailors will also gain skills in teamwork, communication, and leadership and play a role in the team’s wider sustainability projects.

Dee Caffari MBE, a veteran of the race, concluded: “The Vendée Globe takes talent and ability as well as resilience and tenacity. Having sailed with James for the last 18 months I have seen these qualities in him. He is a young, ambitious sailor who is keen to learn and improve. He is open to new ideas and willing to hear feedback, and these characteristics have made him a pleasure to sail with and I am keen to help him realise his dream of a Vendée Globe entry.”

Marcus Hutchinson of Howth and Kinsale is leaving France's TR Racing, where he was team manager for Thomas Ruyant during the last Vendée Globe campaign.

Hutchinson took on the role in January 2018 and is credited by solo skipper Ruyant as being one of the linchpins of the team's performance.

As regular Afloat readers will know, the Hutchinson-managed Vendee Globe-entered IMOCA 60 provided major publicity for the not-for-profit social organisation LinkedOut. 

Of his TR departure, Hutchinson said (in a post translated from French) "We started from scratch in January 2018. We didn't even have a screwdriver in our name when Thomas and Laurent Bourguès asked me to join them,"  “Thomas had a very clear vision and great motivation to set up a successful project off the beaten track. Together, in "start-up" mode, we have put together a great team and we have built a beautiful boat with the support of Advens. We did quite well in sporting terms with fine podiums, successful competitions and a landslide victory in the Transat Jacques Vabre. We can also be proud to have generated enormous media value around our project, directly broadcast to a very important societal cause, and all this in a difficult context linked to the health crisis.

“I would like to thank Thomas and his entourage for giving me this opportunity, for having confidence in my choices and for having shared this adventure with so much class. I wish the TR Racing team all the best for the future. I know they will continue to do great things on the water and on land. Thanks again and keep doing better and better". 

Ruyant said “For many years, Marcus has done a lot of good for French sailing, bringing his vision to our community and encouraging foreign sailors to join our circuits, particularly on the Solitaire du Figaro. I met him when he was in charge of the Figaro Artemis. He joined TR Racing at the start of our 2020 Vendée Globe campaign. We are starting a new cycle in our operation with the rise of our team, our coming season aboard our LinkedOut sailboat, the construction of Advens 2 for the next World Tour. I wish good luck to Marcus for the rest of his great journey". 

Hutchinson has worked on five America's Cup events during his career, and has been coach and mentor for major solo ocean racing campaigns including the Figaro and Vendée Globe and spoke to Afloat's Lorna Siggins in a podcast here in 2021 about Ireland's prospects of hosting the America's Cup.

The President of SAEM Vendée, the organisers of the Vendée Arctique and the Vendée Globe, publish the Notice of Race detailing the rules for participation in the Vendée Arctique - the first qualifying race for the Vendée Globe 2024.

The Vendée Arctique is a non-stop solo offshore race with no outside assistance allowed following in the pure tradition of the Vendée Globe. Now approaching its second edition it is a very unique and demanding event, an extreme adventure very much in keeping with the ethos of the Vendée Globe and the IMOCA class. The solo racers set off northwards the direction of the Arctic Circle, circumnavigating Iceland, before returning to Les Sables d'Olonne, following a demanding 3,500-mile course.

As organisers, the primary duty of SAEM Vendée, is to ensure the safety of sailors, to provide fair racing and to optimise conditions so that as many starters can finish the race and advance their knowledge, experience and their qualification requirements for the 2024 Vendée Globe.

To ensure the skippers are best prepared to face the hostile, icy northern waters Race Direction of the organisation, led by Francis Le Goff, has defined the rules for participation in the Vendée Arctique – Les Sables d’Olonne.

Each skipper must qualify solo on the boat that will do the Vendée Arctique, finishing before May 14, 2022, choosing between

• The Guyader – Bermudes 1000 Race (1,200 nautical miles)
• A qualification course of at least 800 nautical miles
• Two qualifying courses, the sum of which will be greater than 1,000 nautical miles
• In the event that the skipper elects to do a qualifying course rather than the race, at least one of the two must enable them to sail at least 100 miles in wind and sea conditions of at least force 5 on the Beaufort scale.

Notice of Race available for download below

Applications for the 10th edition of the Vendée Globe are officially open with 1,000 days to go until the start on 10th November 2024

Applications will close on 2nd October 2023.

Since the end of the conclusion of the last edition, the SAEM Vendée has been observing a huge amount of interest from skippers and their sponsors, who are already keen to be at the start of the Vendée Globe on 10th November 2024.

As announced last October by Alain Leboeuf - President of the SAEM Vendée and the Vendée Department - when the Notice of Race was published, the applications for the 2024 Vendée Globe officially open on 14th February 2022, Saint Valentine's Day. A nod to the many sailing and ocean racing lovers.

With 1000 days to go until the start, the adventure towards the tenth edition officially begins with this first stage of the entry process.

In the previous edition, 37 candidates had officially declared themselves. This record will likely be broken again by 2 October 2023, the closing date for applications.

The first qualifying stage for the Vendée Globe 2024 solo round the world race will come close to the southwest coast of Ireland when it sets sail this summer. 

The "Vendée Arctic - Les Sables d'Olonne" race will leave from Port Olona, France on June 12, 2022.

This 3,500 nautical miles race is the first qualifying race for the next Vendée Globe and so it will be an opportunity for the skippers of the Vendée Globe 2024 to take on the challenging waters of the northern latitudes. For many of the solo skippers this will be the time they will have crossed the Arctic Circle and circumnavigated Iceland.

To underpin the high level sporting aspects of this very demanding race the SAEM Vendée has appointed Francis Le Goff to act as Race Director.

The President of the SAEM Vendée Alain LEBOEUF, beside him is the Mayor of Les Sables d'Olonne Yannick MOREAU; Laura LE GOFF, the General Manager of the SAEM Vendée and Francis LE GOFF, Race Director of the Vendée Arctic - Les Sables d'Olonne null An experienced Race Direction team is appointed for a race with an extreme, innovative course

Francis Le Goff has been involved in race management teams for more than 20 years and has built up a very solid experience of major offshore and ocean racing events. From watch leader to coach, to Regional League Sailing Director to Race Director, Le Goff has built his marine skillsets over the years through a very multi-faceted approach to the sea.

He has been Race Director on the Solitaire du Figaro from 2017 to 2021 on the Transat en Double Concarneau-Saint-Barthélemy in 2019 and 2021, on the Route du Rhum Destination Guadeloupe 2018 and most recently on the double handed Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre 2021. Overall he has accumulated a significant and varied experience.

48-year-old Yannick Bestaven, the winner of this year's ninth edition of the Vendée Globe has won the French Sailor of the Year Award in Paris.

Before his title of Sailor of the Year presentation, Bestaven was awarded the Legion of Honor by the President of the Republic of France for his victory in the non-stop solo round-the-world race, 

Yannick is respected in France for his 'availability', his commitment and his ability to share his passion beyond sports performance.

Yannick was born in Saint Nazaire, then spent his childhood in Arcachon. He was introduced to sailing from an early age. Barely finished his engineering studies, Yannick took an interest in competition and more particularly in ocean racing. It was during a decisive meeting with the navigator Yves Parlier in 2000, that Yannick embarked on transoceanic competition by entering the 2001 mini-transat (6.50m monohull) which he won conclusively.

On winning the award, Bestaven, Sailor of the Year 2021, said:  “There are quite a few beautiful names on this trophy. It is an honour for me to be on this list of great sailors. My victory in the Vendée Globe means a lot of work, time spent on the water and preparation. We race alone but we don't do anything alone. This trophy, I dedicate it to my partners, my team, my family and my loved ones. "

British sailor Alex Thomson has announced he won't compete as a skipper in the 2024 Vendee Globe, the solo, non-stop race around the world, but doesn't rule out returning to the race in 2028. Thomson has competed in the IMOCA circuit for 19 years including five successive Vendee Globes with two podium finishes and numerous world records.

"I have had the privilege to compete and race IMOCA 60s for almost 20 years. I love the sport but it's now time for me to spend more time on land, with my young family. My wife Kate has single-handedly raised our children for the last 10 years whilst I have pursued my dream. Now I want to support Kate and allow her the same opportunity that she has given me. This doesn't mean that I am retiring, just changing my role, from spending most of my time at sea, to spending more of it on land."

Thomson and his team 5 West Ltd will remain together, "The goal has always been to win the Vendee Globe, which to me remains the toughest sporting challenge left in the world today, and we haven't accomplished that yet. This is the start of a new chapter, with a new skipper, and we will provide him or her with all the tools, knowledge, experience and environment to win."

The rules of participation have been put in place three years before the start of the next Vendee Globe Race, the single-handed non-stop race around the world.

Since the finish of the last edition, the SAEM Vendée has observed unprecedented enthusiasm from the skippers and their sponsors, many of whom are known to want to take the Start of the next edition.

The Notice of Race is unveiled today,  six months in advance of the previous edition’s NoR publication and some three years before the start, in order to provide visibility and transparency on the rules of participation to all contenders.

Applications open at D - 1000 before Departure

Applications for the 10th Vendée Globe will open on February 14, 2022, so at D - 1000 from the Start which is set for November 10, 2024.

In the previous edition, 37 candidates officially applied. This record might well be broken again by October 2, 2023 which is the closing date for applications.

A reinforced qualification pathway

There is no race more demanding than the Vendée Globe and the first duty of the SAEM Vendée, as organiser, is to ensure the safety of the sailors but also to allow as many people as possible to finish the race.

The Vendée Globe is once again fully involved in the IMOCA Globe Series Championship, the primary objective of which is to allow skippers to accumulate experience and increase the reliability of their boats by completing miles in the various races of the Championship.

2020 was the first success in that direction, with three-quarters of the fleet arriving at the finish, compared to the ‘normal’ of around half, an historic first.
In order to maintain this impetus it is important to strengthen the qualifying criteria for the race:

• Qualify the boat that will do the Vendée Globe
• Start 2 solo qualifying races for the Globe Series Championship, including one before the end of 2023 and one in 2024.
• Finish one of these qualifying races within the allotted time (race time less than or equal to that of the first finisher in the race plus 50%).

Maximum of 40 racers will be selected for the 10th edition

If there are many candidates, places at the start of the next edition will be limited. Selection criteria have been laid down in order to be able to decide between the projects which will take the start of this 10th edition.

The selection based on Miles established during the previous edition and in line with the Globe Series Championship is renewed. The selected skippers will therefore be those who have covered the most Miles during the Championship selection rounds, the first of which, the Transat Jacques Vabre 2021, starts in less than a month.

It should be noted that the two-handed races - such as the Transat Jacques Vabre - will count half of the miles covered by the skipper.

In an effort to internationalize and open opportunities to female skippers in offshore racing, The Ocean Race 2022 is part of the Championship selection programme, with each skipper then scoring a quarter of the miles sailed within a limit of 5,000 miles.

In order to promote technological innovation and not penalize new boat projects, the first 13 skippers with a new boat taking the start of a qualifying race will be directly selected.

Finally, the SAEM Vendée gives itself the opportunity, as organiser, to invite up to 1 additional skipper from among the registrants, bringing the maximum number of starters to 40.

Download the full Notice of Race #VG2024 below

After 24 months of research, development, and construction, 11th Hour Racing Team has unveiled its new IMOCA 60, the first of a new era of boats designed to compete in fully crewed, short-handed and solo offshore sailboat races. There has been Irish input too, with County Kerry round the World sailor Damian Foxall, Sustainability Program Manager at 11th Hour Racing Team, providing a full 'Life Cycle assessment' over the course of the build.

A product of Guillaume Verdier’s design studio and built at CDK Technologies in the home of offshore yacht racing in Brittany, France, the new IMOCA 60 blends sporting performance with sustainable construction practices, and state-of-the-art boat building technology.

The hull was rolled out of CDK Technologies’ build shed in Port-la-Fôret, France on Saturday, August 7 and will head to MerConcept in Concarneau for its foils to be fitted along with other final touches. The boat’s colorful design, created in collaboration with two of Italy’s leading designers - Marco and Stefano Van Orton - and France’s Jean-Baptiste Epron - will be unveiled in full when the boat sails for the first time at the end of August.

Where IMOCA 60s are traditionally designed for the typical downwind course of the solo Vendée Globe, the 11th Hour Racing Team boat has been optimized for the broader range of conditions expected in The Ocean Race, which will cross the equator four times in the 2022-23 edition.

Featuring an entirely closed cockpit design, the new IMOCA 60 allows up to five sailors to live and work under the protection of its cover for the majority of time spent offshore. Thanks to its innovative shape, the cockpit provides near-360 degree visibility, further enhanced via a refined auto-pilot, navigation system, cameras, and marine mammal deterrence system.

11th Hour Racing’s new IMOCA is rolled out of the shed at CDK Technologies in Port La Foret to see sunlight for the first time.

Also to be revealed in the coming weeks will be the culmination of two years - and several iterations - of foil design, tested both in the simulator and on the team’s first IMOCA 60, known as 11.1.

Striving to inspire action within the marine industry and beyond, the new 11th Hour Racing Team IMOCA 60 is seeking to set a benchmark for boat building innovations by utilizing alternative materials like flax for hatches, interior and deck panels, and implementing sustainable practices including stakeholder working groups and supply chain engagement, along with a highly analytical life cycle approach while supporting the creation of new IMOCA Class sustainability rules.

Skipper Charlie Enright was excited about the launch: “We’ve designed a version of the IMOCA 60 that no one has ever built before. Our boat should be able to withstand the toughest conditions in the most remote corners of the world, but is also able to compete in various shorthanded configurations. To build an all-around-performer like this, we have worked with the best in the trade: Guillaume Verdier as the lead naval architect, the technical and performance experts at MerConcept, and the build team at CDK Technologies. Running this project during a global pandemic was definitely a challenge, however, one constant never changed: putting sustainability at the center of the whole process.”

Damian Foxall, Sustainability Program Manager at 11th Hour Racing Team, explained more about this sustainability-first approach: “You can’t manage what you can’t measure - and what you can’t measure, can’t be improved. This is why we have executed a full Life Cycle Assessment over the course of the build process, in order to determine the environmental impact of the different components and procedures. Based on this evidence, we can work out different ways to reduce our impact, such as substituting highly-polluting materials with new alternatives, reducing single-use elements, optimizing our supply chain and internal operations, and refining the boat’s actual shape to make it more energy-efficient.

“Sharing our findings with the rest of the industry, from boat builders to sailors to race organizers, is an essential part of our mission, in order to inform the future and push the paradigm shift we urgently need. We have only 8 years left to meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement to reduce our impact by 50%. Business as usual is no longer an option.”

Durability has been a crucial factor in reducing the IMOCA 60’s overall footprint without compromising on performance and safety. Adaptable to both short-handed and fully-crewed racing, the boat in its current setup has been optimized to race with up to five sailors. The boat’s race schedule includes the upcoming Défi Azimut (raced double-handed with a non-sailing onboard media crew member), the Transat Jacques Vabre (double-handed), and The Ocean Race 2022-23 (four sailors and one sailing onboard media crew member).

“Winning The Ocean Race is our ultimate goal,” said Mark Towill, CEO of 11th Hour Racing Team. “These past months have been a huge collaborative effort, connecting a multitude of different stakeholders across the globe to build a boat that is completely different from what this Class has known so far. We are challenging the status quo and aiming to do it as sustainably as possible and sharing these learnings with the wider marine community. We are all extremely proud to see the boat leave the shed and are incredibly grateful to everyone for their hard work.”

Supported by sponsor 11th Hour Racing, the Team is looking to inspire other teams, race organizers and marine businesses to take action by starting their own sustainability journey. "The marine environment is harsher than any other, even outer space; the salt, wind, sun, and incredible force of water work to corrode, break down, or tear apart everything onboard," noted Jeremy Pochman, co-founder and CEO, 11th Hour Racing. "If the sustainable materials used in building the Team's new IMOCA can survive these conditions, then it's clear we can use such materials in less demanding boats, and the advances could ripple out through other industries that deal with far less harsh environments. This is a remarkable milestone as we work to change the narrative around sustainability in the marine and maritime industries, and in everyday life."

Leading up to the new boat’s naming ceremony scheduled for September 13, 11th Hour Racing Team will release a series of content features, including videos and photos, giving detailed insight into the new IMOCA 60’s unique design, artwork, and innovation processes.