Sion, 2 July 2024 – Today, Swiss skipper Oliver Heer announced that he will be among the 40 skippers to take part in the Vendée Globe 2024. This also confirms the continuation of the environmental data collection campaign to gain precious insight in the role the Southern Ocean plays in global climate.
Following a few setbacks towards the end of 2023, Oliver Heer, 36, has now become the first Swiss-German skipper to secure a place on the start line of the ultimate offshore sailing challenge.
The Vendée Globe race is also a unique opportunity for science to collect data in a globally critical yet understudied ocean region. As a major sink of human-made CO2 emissions and excess heat, the Southern Ocean represents one of the key modulators of the global climate system. Aboard his IMOCA yacht Gitana 80, Oliver Heer will continue the data collection campaign with an OceanPack RACE® underway system manufactured by the German company subCtech. Fitted in September 2022, the instrument funded by the Swiss Polar Institute already served during the training and qualification races of the Vendée Globe 2024.
This campaign federates internationally renowned Swiss research groups at ETH Zurich, the University of Bern and the University of Lausanne. This collaboration with scientists and collection of environmental data is central to Oliver Heer’s role both as a campaign leader and skipper, supporting his vision, #RaceForChange.
As similar oceanographic measurements will be carried out by other competing sailing yachts, this campaign also brings open science practices to the fore. All data will be made available through open access data repositories and the resulting research will be published in open access journals.
More information: