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Some four years ago he was in Le Havre as a key member of British skipper Alex Thomson’s technical team. And so above everything he is justifiably proud to have successfully made the enormous leap to from shore crew member to now having his own Swiss- flagged programme. A native of Zurich he is set to race with Swiss co-skipper Nils Palmieri on his IMOCA Oliver Heer Ocean Racing, an IMOCA which has known many different names and five circumnavigations but which started life as Gitana 80.
In 2019 one week after the start of Thomson’s race, he and co-skipper Neal McDonald struck an object and lost the keel off their brand new IMOCA. Three days later that Heer was in a seagoing tug out from Mindelo in the Cape Verde with a crew ready to tow the duo back to port.
Such memories might affect others’ outlooks, but even when he arrived in Le Havre and was allocated the exact same spot on the race dock as Thomson’s in 2019 and the same spot for their technical set up, when other skippers might have baulked, he insists it raised nothing more than a wry smile.
“In this game you make your own luck. We are all on our own journey” affirms the tall, powerfully built ocean racer who turned his back on a high-flying business career in the Far East to pursue his dreams of a competing on the Vendée Globe, partly as a legacy to his father who passed away too early.
“ It is great to be here. It is. But when you think there is now just one year to the start of the Vendée Globe that is the scary thing. It is omnipresent. Right now it is all about improving the reliability of the boat, finding the gremlins and dealing with them. The potential for optimisation on this boat is endless. Over the winter we fitted a have a complete new electronics package, we have some new rigging and now we are looking at new sails. Now we are getting to a point where we need new sails and the plan is we start the Transat CIC next season with new sails. We’ve improved the ergonomics below for example. We are a small team and so have to make decisions very carefully.”
Even with a small team and an older boat, after a productive winter refitting the boat and landing a workable funding package, he is loving life racing in his own colours, being in charge of his own destiny.
He recalls 2019, “Last time with Alex’s brand new boat we were working like crazy to be ready. We had a few problems and were putting in 12-14 hour days. Alex and Neal set off. I was in the technical team and less than a week after the start at 0200hrs in the morning I got the call to say there had been a collision and the keel had come off. Ten days after the start I was in a huge salvage tug with 20 of their crew out of Mindelo to rendezvous with Alex and Neal. So I have promised Theresa (his wife who also worked for Alex Thomson Racing) we will not be going to the Cape Verde Islands but I will see her in Martinique! And It makes us so very proud that four years ago we were both heavily involved with Alex programme and now here we are with our own campaign.”
They are still looking for main sponsors, but Heer says they have enough support to be progressing well:
“ We have money….. some money and I would say that we have enough to be past the point of no return. We are looking for a title sponsor still. But I am proud of how many partners we have brought on in the last year without selling the hull or the mainsail which are available, we have three new partners. But I am so proud of our private supporters club which we have created for individuals and SME’s in the Zurich region. What we realised there is a lot of interest and desire to help but very few have the financial capability to become a title sponsor or premium sponsor so how can we close this gap. So we have now very successfully created a Club 100 with great success. We have 75 members and this gives us a revenue in low six figures a year. And the supporters love it, they are at the same time great ambassadors for our campaign and so talk to other people to get them to become members and so it kind of runs itself. We have a WhatsApp group and so, for example, when I am racing I send them exclusive updates. And all the names are on the rig.
And like so many skippers on this race, finishing and enhancing his Vendée Globe qualification is the most important outcome. His objective, again, is to be among the best of the non-foiling older designs,
“ It is an interesting one.” He says, “ The race back is 7-10 days after the finish and so I really have to keep the boat in good shape and I have to keep myself in good shape. But I am a naturally ambitious and competitive person so I am not out there to sail across the Atlantic with the handbrake on. Looking back at the last two races we twice finished ‘on the podium’ for the non foilers, so that would be my aim to be at the top of the non foiling boats. But I always tell my skipper we have to sail smart, not hard, know when to give it everything and know when to take the foot off the throttle.”
Amazingly he and successful Figaro racer Palmieri – who is from the other end of Switzerland - go way back to Opti days, “We sailed Optimists together going way back, we were in the same training camps when we were 7 and 8 years old, also Simon Koster. We all lost each other completely. But when it came to picking a co-skipper for these races Nils’ name was on the short list. It is a great story to have a Swiss co-skipper. And we did a week’s sailing in the UK and a week in France and we complement each other really well. I have very good technical knowledge of the boats and know IMOCA specific stuff and he is a fantastic strategist and navigator.
And he brings the Figaro way of sailing. And the funny thing is on the Défi Azimuth the engine battery was turned off and we were sailing 14 hours just with compass and we overtook three books, just with him looking at the clouds, deciding when to tack and so on. And we sailed with nothing and took three places. He is from the Lac de Leman and I am from Zurich. There is a big difference culturally, but not real rivalry.”
A year ago his Route du Rhum, the first solo IMCOA ocean race of his career, was compromised after he was struck hours after the start by rival Kojiro Shiraishi. There followed a race against time to repair his boat and continue the race,
“Let’s say that start was not optimal.” He quips, “ But I have learned a lot from that and since then. I used to be a little bit of a maverick, if you like, trying to be out there getting every little advantage, every bit of tidal advantage, every windshift and bend. And now I realise it is a bit more ‘doucement’ (gently, take it easily) as they say in France at the beginning. With a very breezy start then it will be about taking it easy and just settling in. We are very comfortable with our boatspeed generally so we can settle in and then use it. It’s a long race.
