Around the world sailor Boris Herrmann is ready for an important part of his Vendée Globe premiere: The 39-year-old from Hamburg was in sixth place on New Year’s Eve and will be Cape Horn as the third and last cape on the “Route of the Three Cape” on the 3rd or 3rd January 4th happen. The first to be expected there is leader Yannick Bestaven with his »Maître Coq IV« one day after the New Year.
The legendary landmark on the Chilean rocky island of Isla Hornos will storm the skippers of the leading group at the beginning of the last third of the solo race around the world. Then it goes back to the French port of departure and destination Les Sables-d’Olonne. (See the position map here).
On Thursday night Boris Herrmann was first called upon as a technician. The skipper of the “Seaexplorer – Yacht Club de Monaco” had to replace the electric motor in his keel hydraulics because water had penetrated the box. “That was exhausting, took many hours and will hopefully last, because I don’t have another replacement engine,” reported Herrmann.
On New Year’s Eve the first German skipper in the history of the Vendée Globe was tired, but ready for the uncomfortable Drake Passage between Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands. His challenge to the competition: »My idea was always to first take good care of my boat and then attack to Cape Horn. My boat is 100 percent intact. “