Monaco Now - Seaexplorer (formerly Malizia II): a 0% emission, 100% innovation yacht

The Malizia-Seaexplorer finished 12th in the 2024 Vendée Globe. Its skipper, Boris Herrmann, had placed in the top 5 of the 2020 edition.

“It’s done. It’s accomplished. We have arrived safe and sound!” Boris Herrmann finished twelfth in his second Vendée Globe—an epic journey around the world in 80 days, 10 hours, 16 minutes, and 41 seconds. Aboard the Malizia-Seaexplorer, flying the colors of Monaco, the German skipper achieved the feat of sailing 45,000 km solo, non-stop, and without assistance. He completed the race in extremely challenging conditions, facing torrential rain, lightning strikes damaging key electronic systems, a collision with an unidentified object or animal (UOOA), and a tear in the mainsail.

In his first Vendée Globe in 2020, the German skipper finished his circumnavigation in fifth place (in 80 days, 14 hours, 59 minutes and 45 seconds), after an exceptional course. He narrowly missed the podium, colliding with a fishing boat 90 miles from the finish.

As in 2020, Boris Herrman was taking advantage of this Vendée Globe to carry out a scientific mission. Ocean temperature, salinity, PH and CO2… On board the IMOCA 60, an automated laboratory, the Ocean Pack, is used to collect oceanographic data 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. A weather buoy, weighing 20 kg and carried by eight skippers, will also measure atmospheric pressure and surface currents. These measurements are transmitted to the international scientific community, to help them better understand the mechanisms by which water absorbs carbon. In 2020, in collaboration with the IOC-UNESCO program, Boris also deployed an Argo profiling float off Iceland.

The yacht has been renamed Seaexplorer, in reference to the eponymous intelligent digital platform created by the Kuehne + Nagel Group, which provides information on CO2 emissions in the sea freight sector.

With 270 m2 of sails upwind and 550 m2 downwind, the 60-footer has already completed nearly three circumnavigations of the globe, single-handed, double-handed and crewed. “We have the boat that has covered the most miles during the preparation period and competed in the most races,” says Boris Herrmann.

“Beyond sport, Team Malizia is also a certain ‘philosophy of the sea’, particularly in terms of environmental commitment. It’s a cause to which I’ve always been very sensitive. It’s very important. It’s essential to raise people’s awareness as much as possible, especially children, who are our future,” says Pierre Casiraghi, vice-president of the Yacht Club de Monaco and founder of Team Malizia, which has launched an educational program to involve children around the world in climate change and the ocean, with the support of the Prince Albert II Foundation.

In August 2019, the Malizia II enabled Greta Thunberg to cross the Atlantic to attend the United Nations Climate Summit with zero carbon emissions.

To cover the 3,000 nautical miles between the United Kingdom and New York without emitting any carbon, this 18-metre yacht did not use its combustion engine at any point during the voyage. The yacht is equipped with a solar power system and two hydro-generators which produce electricity.

“These two energy sources mean that we can operate all of the systems and electronics on board continuously, including the navigation instruments, automatic controls, desalination system and our ocean laboratory,” explained Pierre Casiraghi and Boris Herrmann.