The first night at sea brought challenging, but nonetheless ‘quite decent’ conditions – despite the occasional hard collisions with the waves, which shook the Malizia – Seaexplorer vigorously. On the third day, the focus was on maintenance when a tear in the main sail required urgent repair. The successful operation forced the sailor to slow down, but after the successful repair, the Malizia – Seaexplorer picked up speed again.

On the following race days, the skipper managed a remarkable race to catch up. First, he was able to work his way past Samantha Davies on Initiatives Cœur into third place. He later overtook Charlie Dalin of MACIF Santé Prévoyance to secure second place, which he maintained until the end of the race (Davies later overtook Dalin to finish third). “It's really motivating to have the boats in close proximity and watch their manoeuvres, “ explained Herrmann. The intense competition atmosphere was further fuelled by the current weather conditions. An area of low pressure swept over the fleet with wind speeds of over 40 knots, allowing the boats to head straight for New York.

In addition to its sporting successes, Team Malizia also sends out a strong signal in favour of environmental protection. On 3 May, Boris Herrmann deployed a weather buoy in the North Atlantic during the race – an important contribution to weather forecasting and climate monitoring. “These buoys are very important for meteorology and also for climatology, “ he emphasised.

After arriving in New York, the sailor now has a few days to enjoy his success before starting the return race to Les Sables d'Olonne in France on 29 May as part of the New York Vendée. For those who want to follow the adventure on the Atlantic, Team Malizia's race tracker will provide regular updates:
https://www.team-malizia.com/live