MONACO, July 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- “My message to young people is this: I really invite you to be very curious, to question the status quo and also the social norms. The way we’re doing things today is not right regarding climate change. We need to make a breakthrough and we will see the greatest changes in the history of our civilization in the next century. This will be a very challenging time for engineers and technicians to work on solutions to drive change, so be ambitious and don't stop at no,” says German skipper Boris Herrmann, who has just been with his crew on the Ocean Race. Herrmann has arrived at the Yacht Club de Monaco, 'home' of his team Malizia (designed and founded together with Pierre Casiraghi, vice president of the Club and Founder of the Team Malizia), on the occasion of this 10th Monaco Energy Boat Challenge. The event dedicated to alternative propulsion has now reached its tenth edition and gathers 31 universities, about 50 teams for a total of 500 international students, who will compete with their boats powered by alternative propulsion in various competitions at sea. Herrmann has always been committed from an environmental point of view including for instance having a laboratory onboard during the past Vendée Globe. “Here at the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge,” continues Herrmann, “we see students with boats with solar technologies but also with hydrogen fuel cells. They are technologies that are not common. They will drive innovation and some startups will emerge from here. They will certainly learn a lot and more and more talent will spread among the people who work in the sector.” And on the future from the point of view of sailing, the German sportsman has his eyes on the Transat Jacques Vabre (October 2023) and the Vendée Globe 2024-2025, a regatta which consists of a complete circumnavigation in solitary, with arrival and departure from the French port Les Sables-d'Olonne, in the Vendée department (Vendée). “As far as we are concerned, we are only in the middle of the cycle of our project with this boat,” he says referring to the Imoca protagonist of the Ocean race. “We have built,” he adds, “a boat specifically for the Vendee Globe, which is the next regatta coming in winter 2024-2025. Until then we still have four more transatlantic regattas to participate in, so this is not the end of the campaign. This is only the first big step taken in 11 months since the launch and 50,000 nautical miles covered.”

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