Captain Boris Herrmann and Team Malizia are back with a new racing yacht, the Malizia-Seaexplorer, an 18-month labour of love that is as innovative in style and design as it is in staying true to environmental concerns. 

Malizia-Seaexplorer, Team Malizia’s new racing yacht, is a serious marvel. With 35,000 design hours, 45,000 man hours and more than 250 players involved in the creation, the team is wildly proud of the outcome and raring to get out on the sea.

The boat, sporting a spoon bow and chistera-shaped foils, has a 4.5 metre keel and an 18.28-metre-long hull along with a 27.3 metre high mast and two outriggers. It drew plenty of attention as it was rolled out of the hangar and craned into the harbour in Lorient last week.

“The team is extremely proud of having launched the boat on the foreseen date. I believe it is a first in our industry to announce a date a year before and deliver exactly on time,” said team skipper Boris Herrmann. “We put tremendous management and team effort to make this happen.”

Herrmann added, “It is incredible to see all the hard work that the team have put in over this last year paying off – so a big thank you to all of them and also to our partners for making this dream a reality. I cannot wait to get back on the water and sail on this amazing machine!”

The Malizia-Seaexplorer is not sponsored by a particular brand but carries the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals wheel and the team’s slogan “A Race We Must Win-Climate Action Now”, with the aim of creating awareness and inspiring ambitious climate action.

Team Malizia and its seven main partners share this common mission – EFG International, Zurich Group Germany, Kuehne+Nagel, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, Hapag-Lloyd AG, SCHÜTZ, and the Yacht Club of Monaco.

The environmental aspects only enhance the feats of engineering that went into the making of the Seaexplorer.

“Learning from our experience in the past four years and in particular the Vendée Globe 2020-21, we wanted a boat that can maintain high average speeds even in rough sea conditions. Therefore, together with the architects from VPLP, we chose softer and rounder hull lines and a curved bow. We also made the boat even more solid than the previous one and completely redesigned the ergonomic and living space,” explained Herrmann of the technology and craftsmanship that went into building the boat.

The first action the new yacht will see comes in November when Hermann will do a solo crossing from Saint-Malo to Guadeloupe in the Route du Rhum, followed by the Ocean Race 2022-23, where he will be joined by co-skippers Will Harris, Rosalin Kuiper, and onboard reporter Antoine Auriol. This six-month round the world team challenge starts mid-January from Alicante and will be test of the new boat, dealing with the rough conditions of the Southern Ocean. After this, Herrmann will take on the Vendée Globe 2024-25, hoping to beat his fifth place finish from the 2021 edition.