Oliver Heer, 33 years old, grew up in Switzerland at Lake of Zurich. Ollie started sailing as a child, and spent most of his free time on the water sailing various dinghies and yachts. In his youth, he competed on a national level and after university, he moved to the South Coast of England to start his professional sailing career.
In 2018, Ollie joined Alex Thomson’s team onboard the IMOCA 60 HUGO BOSS and worked his way up, to take on the overall responsibility of the boat as Boat Captain. In 2021, Alex Thomson and Ollie competed together in the doublehanded Rolex Fastnet Race which was also Ollie’s debut in the IMOCA Globe Series. Ollie has sailed over 50’000 nautical miles together with Alex onboard the HUGO BOSS yachts and has managed to navigate a very steep learning curve, giving him not only outstanding technical know-how but also in-depth experience sailing IMOCA yachts competitively offshore.
It has been Ollie’s lifelong ambition to compete in the Vendee Globe Race. In late 2021, he made the decision to put together a Swiss Campaign with the aim of becoming the first Swiss-German Skipper to be at the start line of this magnificent race. In 2022, the Swiss sailor acquired the former IMOCA PURE - Best Western on which Romain Attanasio finished his Vendée Globe the previous year.
This year’s Route du Rhum Destination Guadeloupe race marks the beginning of his journey to achieve this goal and it will be his first major solo race in the IMOCA Globe Series. Ollie has sailed numerous East to West transatlantic races and is no stranger to this course, including the fickle winds rounding Guadeloupe at the end of the race.
Apart from delivering a solid performance when sailing, Ollie is also an advocate for sustainability and the fight against climate change. When sailing, the team is delighted to work together with various scientific partners to collect valuable environmental data supporting leading scientists in trying to further understand the systems driving our planet’s climate.
2021 : Fastnet Race with Alex Thomson on IMOCA Hugo Boss