The kick-off event in Kiel.Sailing.City, the start port of the Ocean Race Europe 2025, brings together teams, host cities, partners and scientists on the topic of marine conservation.

The Imoca “Malizia – Seaexplorer” and skipper Boris Herrmann received the award for Best German Offshore Yacht 2025 at the eighteenth German Offshore Award on the evening of 6 March 2025. The ceremony took place at Hamburg City Hall and honoured the sensational 2nd place in the New-York Vendée Race 2024.

The Ocean Race, famed for testing endurance and teamwork on the high seas, is writing an exciting new chapter. For five decades our story has been one of hosting a single round-the-world race every three or four years. But today, the Race is evolving into an “always on” format.

It's 6.30am, just a few hours earlier I found out that I could interview Rosalin Kuiper. As Oranje had lost at football the previous evening, I took an orange with me as a consolation ... We talked about humour, respect and how much Rosalin is looking forward to the start of the Ocean Race Europe in Kiel.

IT IS OVERCAST but the barometer reading is high. They arrive at the south harbour of Bear Island at two in the morning on 30 June 1908: seven obsessive birdwatchers on the steamship Strauss, along with four taxidermists and a gunsmith.

How can I become a sailor in the Ocean Race? It's a question we get asked a lot. We asked some of our sailors what they think are the most important qualities to be successful as an aspiring crew member in the Ocean Race. There isn't a simple answer, but when we put this query to some of the IMOCA sailors, a few themes kept coming to the fore.

Spectacular photos of The Ocean Race from the air, the water and on land

Mirko Gröschner is responsible for route planning, acquisition, host city management, marketing and technology at The Ocean Race. We spoke to him about moments in the Race that no scriptwriter could have written more excitingly, a boat that was lost for 34 days - and the close connection between the Race and marine conservation.

 I'm sitting with Björn Both, the frontman of shanty rock band Santiano, in his dressing room at the Barclays Arena in Hamburg. The concert is about to start, the hall is already full, there are various medicines for sore throats and a box of Luckies on the small table in front of us. We talked about arriving in harbours, seamanship on land and marine conservation for the oceans.

Sanni Beucke from Kiel is an Olympic silver medallist in the 49er FX, an Ocean Race participant and is now aiming for the 2028 Vendée Globe. in 2024, she founded the "This race is female" campaign and also published the book "Against the Wind". We spoke to Sanni about the forces of nature, femininity and tailwinds.

In her podcast "The Human Behind The Sailor", Rosalin Kuiper takes you into the minds of skippers who take part in the toughest sailing races in the world, such as the Vendée Globe or The Ocean Race. Because ocean sailing is a tough business - but behind every sailor is a human being who encounters the vastness of the horizon, loneliness, storms - and challenges that could never have been anticipated.

Best of The Ocean Race Keel Fly-By

Ocean Live Park Kiel Fly-By 2023

Best of Drone Shots from the IMOCA's in sailing action

Photos of The Ocean Race's marine conservation research projects and learning opportunities

Das Kiel-Marketing-Team repräsentierte auf dem Summit in Alicante die Stadt Kiel. Mit im Gepäck hatten wir für alle Beteiligten vor Ort Mitbringsel unserer Partner Flensburger und Spielbank SH – eine Ladung Flens-Kisten für ein norddeutsches Plop! und Einladungen zur Pre-opening-Night im Casino Kiel. Und: wir hatten unsere einzigartige Kiel-Storyline dabei, die am Ende alle Teilnehmenden aus ganze Europa intonierten: Wir segeln alle im selben Boot.

Renowned German sailor Boris Herrmann has been honoured with the esteemed "Deutscher Meerespreis" (German Ocean Award), presented by the Prof. Dr. Werner Petersen Foundation. This award, in partnership with the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, recognises Herrmann's significant contributions as an oceanambassador and his efforts in bringing marine research to the public.

The Ocean Race Summit in Alicante brought together global leaders, innovators, and advocates to confront one of the defining challenges of our time: protecting the health of our ocean and restoring society’s relationship with the blue heart of the planet.

Rosalin Kuiper is a professional ocean sailor and studied psychology, specialising in team building in high-performance sport. She is a skipper for Holcim-PRB in the Ocean Race Europe. Rosalin is active on Instagram and LinkedIn, where this article by her also appeared.

Fischkutter, Netze und Reusen so weit das Auge reicht. Salzige Luft, im Hintergrund das leise Rauschen des Meeres – das ist der Möltenorter Hafen. Mittendrin: der Wagen von Björn Fischer. Der Seebär kennt die Ostsee wie seine Westentasche und führt bereits seit 40 Jahren eine langanhaltende Familientradition fort.

Greta-Sophie Strauß and Anjoscha Voigtsberger have already gained valuable experience during the Ocean Race Fly-by in June 2023. Now the Ocean Race Europe is coming up - and it's hard to say where the joy is greater: for the two of them or for the many guests we are expecting.

 Whether deliberately discharged or unintentionally introduced, plastic waste, pharmaceuticals, toxic heavy metals, insecticides and other chemicals have found their way to every corner of the oceans. The consequences are catastrophic and often lethal, especially for marine organisms. The only good news is that international prohibitions of some pollutants are beginning to have an effect. Without radical changes in industry and commerce, however, the pollution crisis in the oceans cannot be overcome.

Jährlich passieren Tausende von Schiffen den Nord-Ostsee-Kanal, was Lotsen zu unverzichtbaren Führern für sichere Durchfahrten macht. Gerald Immens ist einer von ihnen. Er lebt seinen Traumberuf und verrät uns, warum der Job wie ein Taxistand ist, wie unterschiedlich jeder Tag ist und warum es nicht auf die Größe der Schiffe ankommt.

Rosalin Kuiper is a professional ocean sailor and studied psychology, specialising in team building in high-performance sport. She is a skipper for Holcim-PRB in the Ocean Race Europe. Rosalin is active on Instagram and LinkedIn, where this article by her also appeared.

 The oceans and seas provide oxygen for breathing and food, they provide work for millions and millions of people and are loved as a place of longing, a spiritual home, a sports or adventure playground. At the same time, the oceans regulate the weather and climate and slow down man-made global warming. The future of humanity is therefore directly linked to the fate of the oceans.

 Humankind has divided the ocean into artificial zones in order to lay sole claim to specific areas and their resources. Species and water masses, however, migrate undisturbed across the borders of these zones, as do heat, pollutants and litter. Successful marine management therefore requires collective solutions.

Videos of The Ocean Race Europe - Kiel

Clemens Feigl is CEO and co-founder of everwave with a focus on preventing waste from entering our oceans. The strategy includes litter collection with smart technologies, innovative research and awareness work. We spoke to Clemens about local commitment to the oceans, huge rubbish fields in the sea and wheat beer in Singapore.

Travelling is in Gerd Blank's genes. He brought back many stories and even more gratitude from his multi-year tour through Europe.

With his ZERO EMISSIONS project, Michael Walther combines ocean and climate protection with extreme water sports activities. He paddled with his SUP from Basel to Kiel and in Disco Bay off Greenland, and next he will be crossing the Atlantic for six and a half thousand kilometres without an accompanying boat. We spoke to him about how to make climate protection cool, the importance of mental strength and why he didn't become a lawyer.

LONELINESS lies in the centre of the Kara Sea in the northern Arctic Ocean. This island is worthy of its name: it is cold and barren, trapped in pack ice all winter, with an average annual temperature of 16 degrees; at the height of summer the temperature sometimes rises to just over freezing.

 Dr. Inez Linke is co-founder and managing director of oceanBASIS GmbH, which is based in Kiel-Holtenau. From her office, she looks out over the shipping traffic in front of the locks of the Kiel Canal and, if she is lucky, even sees a dolphin. Inez loves algae and, as a marine biologist, has developed the Kiel-based natural cosmetics company Oceanwell. How does that fit together - and what do algae have to do with marine conservation or even sailing?

Am Seefischmarkt Kiel schlägt das Herz der maritimen Innovation: TransMarTech (TMT) vernetzt Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft, um nachhaltige Lösungen für die Zukunft der Meere zu fördern. Wie das TMT innovative Ideen in marktfähige Technologien verwandelt, erfährst du hier!

Ralf's journey to work in the morning takes him across the water of the Kiel Fjord, the trip on the fjord steamer seems like something from another world.

 Our local beaches are a real paradise – but unfortunately they are often littered with rubbish. This is exactly where our FLENS StrandGut campaign comes in: We want to lend a hand again in 2025 and work with you to clear our region's coasts of rubbish. With a new record target of 60 million square metres, we are making our beaches even cleaner and more beautiful.

Marine conservation begins on land – in the Arche (Ark) Warder just outside Kiel. The ocean provides a habitat for countless plant and animal species. The diversity of this habitat is under threat. In addition to many other factors, agriculture also plays a role.