German doublehanders to race around the world

An update from the Portimão Global Ocean Race

Global Ocean Sailing Ventures, organisers of the Portimão Global Ocean Race, today announced that Boris Herrmann, a top dinghy sailor in his native land of Germany, has formally entered the Portimão Global Ocean Race. Herrmann, who won the 505 National Championships in Germany in 2007, also placed 9th in the World Championships. He is well known on the International Dinghy Circuit and is slowly making a name for himself in offshore ocean racing having competed in the Mini Transat and cruised extensively aboard his family’s steel sloop since the tender age of three months. This will be his first around-the-world race and will be competing in the double-handed 40ft division. Joining him as co-skipper is Felix Oehme, a German match racing hotshot and old rival from the dinghy racing scene.

“We are thrilled to have Boris and Felix in the race,” said Josh Hall, Race Director of the Portimão Global Ocean Race. “They are precisely the kind of young talent we hoped would enter the race. Both Boris and Felix bring their enormous skills as dinghy sailors to the offshore racing circuit and will inevitably become the rising stars of ocean racing.”

Boris Herrmann has a busy sailing schedule planned in advance of the Portimão Global Ocean Race. On 11 May he will join a highly competitive fleet of Class 40s to race singlehanded across the Atlantic in The Artemis Transat. Shortly after he will compete in two successive events: the Marblehead to Halifax Race, and the Quebec to St Malo Race, both events raced fully crewed. After a short visit to Germany on behalf of his sponsor Beluga Shipping GmbH, he will sail to Portimão for the race around the world.

“I am very pleased to be able to compete in the Portimão Global Ocean Race,” said Herrmann. “We have a great sponsor in Beluga Shipping GmbH, a terrific boat and a team of talented sailors that includes Jan Saugman, the current 505 World Champion and weather expert Ralf Brauner. It’s my goal to successfully circumnavigate in the Portimão Global Ocean Race as a stepping-stone to what I hope will become a successful offshore ocean racing career.”

Herrmann will compete in an Akilaria 40 designed by French naval architect Marc Lombard.

The Portimão Global Ocean Race 2008/09 (PGOR) is the world’s first solo-double global ocean race and has as it’s Title Sponsor the City of Portimão, Portugal. The inaugural running of the event will mark the first time an around-the-world yacht race has both a single-handed and double-handed division in the same event.

The race will start from Portimão on 12 October, 2008 and sail a traditional course around the world stopping in Cape Town, South Africa, Wellington, New Zealand, Ilhabela, Brazil and Charleston, United States covering a distance of 30,000 nautical miles.