The Vendée Globe is a solo (single handed) non-stop around the world yacht race with no assistance.

It was founded in 1989 by Philippe Jeantot and only happens every 4 years. The race starts and finishes in Les Sables-d’Olonne in France and it is considered the pinnacle of yacht races.

During the race the sailors travel down the Atlantic Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope, then travel around Antarctica with Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn on their port side and then back to France.

Boris's time on the Vendée Globe 2020/21 was:

80 days 14 hours 59 minutes and 45 seconds

Technological advancements are making this race even more exciting with the ability to livestream the action happening on the boat and to connect with the sailors.

Understandably the race received a lot of media coverage, with over 36.5k articles mentioning Boris, the yacht and the team and an AVE valuation for editorial & online news alone of €405.67M.

The potential media reach after the race was of 43.86 billion.

345million

Vendee Globe website and app views

71million

Vendee Globe videos viewed

2.25million

visitors to the start and end of the race

€198million

gross media valuation

Sponsorship

We are still looking for sponsors for the Vendee Globe and beyond into The Ocean Race.
If you are interested and would like to know more please email us on [email protected]

Team Malizia was founded in 2016 by Pierre Casiraghi, Vice-President of the Yacht Club de Monaco. Pierre Casiraghi and Boris Herrmann are racing teammates, good friends and ocean explorers. They have worked together to create Team Malizia and sail races across the globe.

The team name Malizia, chosen by Pierre, symbolises the Grimaldi family history and their deep connection to the ocean. It translates to ‘the Cunning One’’ a name that was given to Francesco Grimaldi in 1297 after he established the family dynasty.

Pierre shows that there is a sentimental link to the name and says “I always wanted to give this name to a race team for what Malizia represents for us in the Principality”. The team have their sights set on the Vendée Globe and beyond to The Ocean Race.

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PIERRE CASIRAGHI – Team Founder (MON)

Pierre Casiraghi is a Monaco born sailor, entrepreneur and co-skipper of Team Malizia.

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BORIS HERRMANN – Skipper (GER)

Boris is a professional sailor living in Germany’s most beautiful city – Hamburg.

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WILL HARRIS — Malizia Co-Skipper (GBR)

Will is an experienced offshore sailor, who has competed in the La Solitaire du Figaro circuit 2016.

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HOLLY COVA – Team Director (GBR)

Holly is based in Hamburg and has been managing Team Malizia since 2018. She is responsible for overseeing all areas of management, sponsorship, PR/media and logistics. Holly was previously a lawyer and is also a keen ocean sailor and lived on a boat sailing the South Pacific for all of 2016.

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STUART MCLACHLAN – Boat Captain (NZ)

Stuart has over 16 years experience in running racing yachts and has been involved in The Ocean Race, The Vendee Globe and The Barcelona World Race.

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BIRTE LORENZEN - Education (GER)

Birte is a teacher with 8 years experience, she developed the Ocean Challenge kit with the aim to educate children around the world about climate change and the ocean.

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RYAN BREYMAIER - The Expert (USA)

Involved in the IMOCA circuit since 2007, including the Barcelona World Race 2010 with Boris and winning the 2014 NY-Barcelona race with Hugo Boss. Trained as a rigger, but bringing my experience to bear anywhere we can find improvements before the Vendee.

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LUCIA NEBRADA - Logistics Manager (SPN)

Lucia has been working for different sailing teams and event the last 5 years - including Turn the Tide on Plastic team of the last Volvo Ocean Race edition - doing all the logistics around the world. In her spare time you will find her running and exploring the city she is in.

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JAY THOMPSON– Boatbuilder and Systems (GBR)

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EDWIN DE LAAT - Rigger (NZ)

I am a yacht rigger. I have been involved in sailing for Emirate Team New Zealand in the extreme sailing series (2014) and there after worked at Hall Spars and rigging before starting my own rigging company where I then moved onto working for Sail GP and then onto Team Malizia.

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Anne-Claire Bihan-Poudec - Polar Scientist (FR)

Polar scientist and adventurer. Anne-Claire has participated in various polar expeditions and worked with multiple research institutes before joining the Malizia Ocean Challenge program. Here, she wants to develop scientific and educational programs to inspire younger generations using her knowledge from past expeditions and findings.

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RALF BRAUNER - Meteorologist (GER)

Science, education and training in relation to weather/routing options.

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MIKE MARQUES - Partnerships Team (ESP)

Former head of business development of the Volvo Ocean Race, Mike knows the sailing world inside out. Lecturer of sports marketing at the Munich Business School in his spare time.

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ARNO BÖHNERT - Management Team (GER)

Arno is a dedicated offshore sailor himself and has been racing worldwide. He has joined the team on the corporate and management side and also works as a sales director for an international german company.

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JOHANNES HAGEDORN - Partnership and Management Team (GER)

Johannes has a long career in sports marketing and has become a fan of sailing ever since he was responsible for sponsoring a well-known sailing team at a global fashion company. Since then, he's working to get a German team back on the grid for the world's largest offshore races

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ARNO KRONENBERG - Consultant & Sponsoring (GER)

After a decade of worldwide racing Arno’s fascination for single-hand-racing brought Boris and him in the late nineties together. Since then Arno assists Boris especially concerning sponsoring and business-development.

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THOMAS THEURILLAT - Mental Coach (SUI)

Thomas is a mountain guide and holds a degree in psychology. He is also a coach and the focus of his company, OneDay is on the specific strengths of people in challenging situations. Thomas is coaching Boris and helping him prepare for the mental and physical challenge that is the Vendée Globe.

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ANDREAS LINDLAHR - Photographer and videographer (GER)

Andreas is a lifetime photographer and filmer on land and on water. He is also a Mini-Transit sailor and sailing enthusiast.

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YANNICK KETHERS - Team Journalist (GER/POR)

Yannick has been sailing since childhood. He writes articles for sailing magazines and various blogs, sharing his experiences at sea and reporting on sailing events in four languages: English, French, German and Portuguese.

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STEFAN RAIMUND - Ocean Scientist (FRA)

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DR PETER LANDSCHÜTZER - Ocean Scientist (GER)

Peter is a leading scientist in climate change at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and works closely on the data Malizia produces to effectively read, present and submit the information

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DANIEL MÖHLER - Chef (SWE)

Daniel is the Team Malizia chef, cooking up amazing meals and making sure that everyone is well fed in the run up to the big races!

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DR TOSTE TANHUA - Ocean Scientist (SWE)

Toste is a Geomar ocean scientist and plays a key role in advising on ocean impacts of climate change and analysing the data that Malizia produces.

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THOMAS THEURILLAT - Mental Coach (SUI)

Thomas is a mountain guide and holds a degree in psychology. He is also a coach and the focus of his company, OneDay is on the specific strengths of people in challenging situations. Thomas is coaching Boris and helping him prepare for the mental and physical challenge that is the Vendée Globe.

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Dr. Jens Holscher - Team Legal and Sponsorship (GER)

Jens has joined the team in 2019 on the management side and gives support in sponsorship and legal matters. While he runs his own law firm specialized in IP and contract law Jens is also legal counsel for Europeans biggest climate week and a dedicated sailor since his youth.

2015

build year

29m

mast height

18.28m

length

35knots

max speed

Our racing yacht, Seaexplorer - Yacht Club De Monaco was originally called Malizia - Yacht Club de Monaco.

The name change is due to our new partnership with Kuehne + Nagel which combines with The Yacht Club de Monaco to create a partnership based around sustainability, the ocean and climate change.

The two title partners are represented on the hull and sails along with our other partners, EFG Bank, MSC, CMA and Hapag Lloyd.

Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco is a first generation foiling IMOCA60 built in 2015.

Team Malizia updated her foils in 2016 and a further full update in 2020 with new third generation foils to make her highly competitive. Her purpose is to explore the ocean and compete in big ocean races like the Vendee Globe and The Ocean Race.

She has a mast height of 29m, is 18.28m in length, 5.50m beam and has a 4.50m draught. These boats are built using composite material which is intended to reduce weight whilst also being able to endure extreme weather conditions out in the ocean. With the ability of doing 30 knots in only 22 knots of wind, the foiling system allows her to make full use of all available wind. Upwind she has a sail area between 240 and 330 m2 and downwind between 460 and 620m2.

We are fully equipped with solar panels and hydro generators to power the boat so we do not use fossil fuels.

We also carry a CO2 ocean sensor onboard to measure ocean data in remote locations.

Seaexplorer – Yacht Club de Monaco moves with the power of the wind and creates energy from the sun with her 1.3kw of custom fitted solar panels supplied by Solbian Solar. She also harnesses the power of the water through two Watt and Sea hydro generators at the stern of the boat that can be raised and lowered depending on your tack. In 2019 we completed 4 trips across the Atlantic without using any fossil fuels, in 2020 we will aim to do the same.

Transat Jacques Vabre

2021November
  • France to Martinique

The Ocean Race

2022October
  • Alicante - Round the world

Vendée Globe 2024

2024November
  • France - solo-around the world