Internationalsailing champion Boris Herrmann and Team Malizia tell about the adventurousround-the-world Ocean Race.

ABENTEUER OCEAN RACE
(The Ocean Race)
by Boris Herrmann and Andreas Wolfers
C.Bertelsmann/PRH Germany, November 2023

The Ocean Race is the toughest team race in the sailing calendar. It consists of seven legs that take around six months to complete, the longest of which covers an unbelievable 23,000 km, from Cape Town via Cape Horn to Itajaí in Brazil. German champion yachtsman Boris Herrmann and Team Malizia are competing against four other teams on Seaexplorer, and with five crew squeezed into such a small space you need to be able to rely on each other. In storms and lulls, everything you do has to be exactly right. Unforeseen problems like a crack on a mast 26 m up could spell the end of the race for the Seaexplorer, but the team tackles them with total professionalism. These four men and one woman are pushing their bodies and minds to the very limit, as they experience both failures and triumphs. In their new book, Herrmann and Wolfers give us a fascinating insight into the Ocean Race, and what it’s like for five people to live and work together in such exciting and unique circumstances.

Boris Herrmann, born in 1981. In 2020, he was the first German to participate in the Vendée Globe, the toughest regatta for single-handed sailors, which he completed in 80 days. He became famous around the world for sailing Greta Thunberg to the UN Climate Summit in New York on his yacht.

Andreas Wolfers, born in 1958, worked as a reporter for GEO magazine for 13 years, was head of copy at Stern and headed the Henri Nannen School of Journalism. Wolfers has been sailing since childhood and has also crossed the Atlantic.