Lorient (AFP)

At 2 months, he was chirping in the North Sea. At 39 years old, Boris Hermann is the first German to enter the legendary Vendée Globe after having swallowed up the stories of the greatest sailors, traveled the world and played the serving knights for Greta Thunberg and her cause.

Sunday, November 8, Boris Hermann (Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco) will start the Vendée Globe, the solo round-the-world non-stop race in an Imoca (18m monohull sailboat).

"My parents took me to sea, along the German coast, I was 6 weeks old. The Vendée Globe fascinated me when I was 16, I read lots of books, on Moitessier, Tabarly. But also the books of Philippe Monet, Ellen MacArthur, Pete Goss, and that of the Canadian Derek Lubdy, 'The Godforsaken Sea' ('The test. Running in the most dangerous waters of the world', Editor's note) ", tells - in French - Hermann to AFP.

It was in Sainte-Marine, a small port in Finistère on the Odet river - "where Eric Tabarly was sailing" - that he put his suitcase down in 2001.

"I arrived with my little French, I lived in my car. It was still really Brittany, the nice shot of Brittany far from the rest of Europe, it was a great experience, the pace was a lot calmer, I didn't have a mobile phone or a computer. Just my little notebook and a few pieces to put in the phone to make a phone call, "he recalls.

- At the school of Desjoyeaux and Soldini -

The sailor came to do + his mini + - the Mini-Transat, a training solo transatlantic race for aspiring seafarers.

"I was only the third German to do it. In Germany, our offshore racing culture is more timid but there is still a wealth in sailing clubs with very nice institutions, some spend 6 million per year for great projects, ”he emphasizes.

After his studies, he met the head of a maritime transport company, which he embarked on a 2-year project in a Class40 (12 m monohull). The company will then go bankrupt, ruining their common Vendée Globe adventure in 2008/2009.

"It took me 8 years to find my own project, but it was a detour, in quotes, which made me make records all over the world," he says.

Hermann will have sailed with the Italian Giovanni Soldini aboard Maserati and crewed around the world in search of the Jules Verne Trophy with Francis Joyon (Idec Sport) in 2015 but without a record (47 days when the record was 45 days). The one who also trained with Michel Desjoyeaux, double winner of the Vendée Globe, finished 5th in the Barcelona World Race in 2010 (round the world in doubles).

- Princely family of Monaco -

In 2016, a German bought the brand new Imoca from the Gitana team (Edmond de Rothschild stable) and entrusted it to Hermann, who then joined the Malizia team, founded by his friend Pierre Casiraghi, nephew of Prince Albert of Monaco. The Vendée Globe adventure has been launched.

One Route du Rhum in 2018 (he finished 5th) and two Transat Jacques-Vabre (4th in 2017, 12th in 2019) and he is now propelled to the top of the provisional Imoca Globe Series 2018/2021 ranking, three months before the start of the Vendée Globe.

"Boris has been extremely (focused) on the Vendée Globe for 3 years, it's seven days a week, it's impressive", remarks one of his teammates, the Englishman Will Harris, adding that Hermann, a very young dad , do not miss any collective internship at the France pole of Port-la-Forêt.

The German navigator, who divides his life between his base in Lorient and his city of Hamburg, even takes the time to do public relations for the planet.

A year ago, he welcomed Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg aboard her beautiful black and light gray boat for a trip from England to New York, where she was on her way for a convention. This goes without saying for the sailor who also works actively for the protection of the oceans.

© 2020 AFP