Charlie Dalin: "I am very happy to be back on land"

I  feel pretty good! I'm still in the recovery phase of course. But since Thursday morning, I've started doing a bit of interval training on my home trainer again. But otherwise I sleep well and eat well. I gained 2 kg again four years ago and 3 kg this year, I've made some progress! It feels good to enjoy my family, to be calm. Between the Vendée Globe, the "media tour" and before the race all the training courses, the races and all the preparation, I haven't been able to spend much time with them recently.

It wasn't hard but I was sleepwalking a bit. I got up with a start, opened the curtains wide, the window and put my hands on my hips. I think I was talking about Yoann (Richomme), who I had forgotten to cover. Luckily Perrine (my partner) was there to close the window, otherwise we would have gotten up with 5°C in the room the next day! The tension had been high before the finish line and I think that night my brain was still racing.

Yes, totally! I am very happy to take my son to school, to pick him up. We went to the cinema, we are getting ready to go skiing.  I am very happy to get back to my life on land. But it is true that I get tired easily. I take a nap every day!

Yes, I look at the carto from time to time.  But I don't do any routing! (laughs)
What are the major technical lessons that can be learned from this 10th edition?
That the boats have all become more reliable. They have made a lot of progress since the last edition. But there are always aspects to improve. On our side we have already done more than 7 hours of debriefing with the team since my finish. 

This will really be the fourth generation of foilers. The hulls, the foils will advance. We will also have to think about sail choices and management (the skippers will have one less set of sails in 2028). Given the intensity with which we are racing, there is still progress to be made on ergonomics. The boats will be more and more refined and will be able to adapt to high speeds. The new generation of IMOCA will be even more versatile.

Yes, I had incredible conditions but we had to go and get them (laughs)! Being in the lead when leaving the Atlantic allowed me to position myself well in the South. Not everyone could be ahead of the depression in the Indian Ocean. But it’s true that between New Zealand and Cape Horn, I made fewer than five gybes when the others made around twenty! Then, despite a small depression after Cape Horn and a cold front that was a bit involved, I stayed on the same tack from the island of Trindade to Penmarch. It’s incredible for sure. The biggest gust I had was at 40 knots. Compared to the others, I had it pretty good

We mustn’t forget that we were quite far behind the reference times of Armel (Le Cléac’h) and Alex (Thomson) up until the Cape of Good Hope. With a faster North Atlantic and a front that propels the fleet like we had in the South Atlantic, you can be four days ahead of their record by there. Apart from the 2020 edition, you generally take 4 days off each edition. But you know that at some point, the curve will bend back. It's true that the weather I had was crazy. I thought I would finish in 68 to 72 days but doing less than 65, I didn't expect that at all!

Yes, absolutely. I was lucky to be very well received in the editorial offices by journalists, technicians... JI enjoyed taking part in ‘En aparté’, ‘Quelle époque’, ‘Stade 2’, with the readers of L’Équipe.. You learn and realise people followed the race a lot. In our sport, you’re not in a stadium, you never know if the public is there or not. But I feel like that was the case!

I didn’t think about it… There are definitely some anecdotes that I haven’t talked about. There was a moment in particular. I was side by side with Yoann, I was brining in my J0. There were 3-degree seas that were hitting the deck of the boat, a slightly pale light, the end of twilight in the 60s. That’s one of the very special memories that I really enjoyed during my round the world race.