Testimony of Boris Herrmann about Squid
Born in 1981, Boris Hermann was the youngest sailor for the Mini Transatlantic race. At 19 years old only, he finished honorably at the 11th place . This first ocean racing gave him a visibility all while opening a lot of perspectives. After number of victories, he enters the Class40 category in 2008 and arrives second at the Artemis Transat (one of the oldest solo Transatlantic race). Crew member of Guo Chan, he took part in the first race record trimaran for the passage of the North-East in Arctic. Long-term team member of Francis Joyon, he was in IDEC sport team for the Jules Verne Trophy edition 2015/2016.
Since when do you navigate with Squid?
B.H. : I know Gerald Bibot, the Great Circle founder, since the beginning, back in 2010 Since then, all contributions of Great Circle and continuous improvements of Squid were important in my professional achievements as a skipper,or navigator.
How do you use this software?
B.H. : Now Squid really become my reference, as of my teammates with whom I’ve been sailing on different boats. We’ve used this software on the Maserati, the Volvo 70 of Giovanni Soldini and with the Guo Chuan’s Qindao Team. We even used Squid through the Northeast Passage in Arctic. Squid is always with me when I’m sailing.
What is the main asset of Squid experiencing this software with you?
B.H. : The main advantage to me is the focus of Squid to integrate all the weather-data-collecting in a unique, user friendly interface. In My point of view, Squid is the only comprehensive software to concentrate all these informations and resources. Moreover, the using is really easy and intuitive.
What did Squid brought to your navigation?
B.H. : Before Squid, the preparations of races were very long; now it’s enough to get a good Squid subscription to take the sea, getting all the necessary informations, challenging one model Vs another.
Did you already use the Best-Start, a Great Circle’s service?
B.H. : The Best-Start is an advanced and high-end peace of innovation! It helps us to deciede the best moment for the departure of the numerous records in which I’ve participated. Particularly this year, I was navigator on board bots which won 5 world records! The Best-Start is a wonderful tool to optimize performances from the early beginning.