12 days, 9hours, 1minute and 3 seconds – this is how long it took for the duo Boris Herrmann and Will Harris onboard the Malizia - Seaexplorer to sail the famous Transat Jacques Vabre from Le Havre, France to the French Caribbean Island of Martinique.

After the first three IMOCAs had arrived in the early hours of the morning, fans and shore crews were left anxiously waiting for the next boats to arrive. Up until the very end, it was not clear, who would grab the next top spot on the leader board, as a close group of 4 teams were fast to approach the finish line located in the bay of Fort-de-France.

The approaching teams were left in a fierce battle on the water, pushing their boatsas hard as they could, making every race minute count. 

Finally, places 4-7 all arrived within 30 minutes of each other, which is hard to believe considering they had spent more than 12 days at sea and navigated completely different routes to get to the race destination. 

Arriving at 17:31:03 UTC on Sunday the 20th November after an intense battle, Team Malizia made 7th place out of 34, missing 6th place just by 1minute and 5 seconds.

Boris Herrmann, skipper of the Malizia - Seaexplorer commented: “Our top 7 finish is satisfying, but we think we learned that we can improve even further and have the results of upcoming races reflect that.”

And Boris will not have much waiting to do: the next race is the Retour à La Base, which will see Boris take the start on the 30th of November and sail singlehandedly from Martinique to Lorient, France in a very competitive fleet of other skippers hoping to compete in the Vendee Globe