Boris Herrmann finally gets wind again in the transatlantic classic Route du Rhum, but is only in 27th position. At the top of the Imoca field, it gets exciting again, Charlie Dalin, who has been in the lead for a long time, has to fear for victory.
Thomas Ruyant (“LinkedOut”) is now wafer-thin ahead of Dalin and “Apivia”. A good 700 nautical miles behind the duo, Herrmann has finally escaped the doldrums and, as 27th of 34 Imocas remaining in the race, is struggling to catch up with the midfield.
“I’m not frustrated because of the position in the race. I can deal with the gap quite well,” said the native of Oldenburg on Friday, the tenth day of the one-handed classic with his new “Malizia – Seaexplorer”. “I had predicted that a bit. It’s a race I want to finish. But of course I want to sail well and I’m in full race mode.”
Herrmann on the new boat: “Starting to like it”
He was “proud that we managed to have a reliable, fully operational ship here. It works well. Now I need to get to know it even further to become one with it like I was with my old ship . But I like it, I’m starting to like it.” The new ship is much more consistent in its speed. “It’s louder, though, and that causes acoustic stress for me.”
Boris Herrmann was wrong with positioning
The man from Hamburg started the regatta very defensively with smaller sails and fell behind early on at Cape Finisterre in north-west Spain. That has paid off in the past few days. As the field continued to advance to the west, the 41-year-old, who had been wrong with his positioning in the south-east of the field, got stuck with the “Malizia”.
“It’s clearly not the boat, it’s my choice of route, strategic decisions,” Herrmann explained. “It started with the fact that I didn’t take off properly. I was afraid of collisions. I started with the small jib, everyone else with the big J2.”
“I took a few risks with the route. And I also made a few defensive decisions. I didn’t think it would have such a big impact, but I’m quite relaxed about it.”
— Boris Herrmann
Finally out of the doldrums, Herrmann tries to find a good wind angle in the trade wind for the journey to Guadeloupe. The boats in the top ten area, such as the German-French Isabelle Joschke (“MACSF”) in ninth place, are already around 250 nautical miles ahead of him.
“Being alone is hard and exhausting”
“I’m a bit in my own race now. Try to use the time as best as possible and maybe even make up a mile or two,” said the man from Hamburg. He is doing well and has gotten used to single-handed sailing again. “In the first week of the Route du Rhum I felt incredibly lonely – so isolated. Basically, you’re not lonely because a lot of people are following the race. Nevertheless, I’m happy when I’ve arrived. Being alone is hard and stressful.”
This topic in the program:
NDR Info | 16.11.2022 | 4 p.m
