Building on their previous collaboration during the Vendée Globe 2024, Oliver Heer Ocean Racing and the Swiss Polar Institute renewed their partnership to place world-leading Swiss science on Oliver Heer’s racing sailing yacht IMOCA 60. This new cutting-edge data collection campaign will take place during both the training and racing phases of the Vendée Globe challenge between 2026 and 2029.
The collected data will be analysed by leading Swiss science groups at ETH Zurich (Nicolas Gruber), the University of Bern (Thomas Frölicher) and the University of Lausanne (Samuel Jaccard) and coordinated by the Swiss Polar Institute. Oceanographic measurements will be performed using an OceanPack RACE® underway system manufactured by the German company subCtech, specifically developed and tested for implementation on sailing yachts for races. The instrument, funded and maintained by the Swiss Polar Institute, has already served during the Vendée Globe 2024-25. It now enters a new racing cycle up to the Vendee Globe race in 2028-29.
While the Swiss Ocean Pack includes some unique features, similar oceanographic measurements will be carried out by competing sailing yachts, offering inter-comparability and quality control opportunities. The collected data will thus contribute to filling in the important gaps in global ocean datasets and will be integrated into scientific publications, including open access data repositories.
2026-2028 race schedule:
September 2026 – The Ocean Race Atlantic
January 2027 – The Ocean Race 2027 – Round the World route
October 2028 – Transat Café L’Or
November 2028 – Vendée Globe
More information about the partnership:
→ https://swisspolar.ch/vendee-globe/
→ https://www.oliverheer.com/data-collection
Header image: © Oliver Heer Ocean Racing, all rights reserved