DISCOVERING DALIN

Passionate about sailing since his childhood in Le Havre, the young Charlie Dalin lined the walls of his room with his favourite skippers. He grew up with the biannual Transatlantic double handed race as a fixture in his life. Although he progressed step by step through the different dinghy classes, offshore to the point that here at 40 he seems to be on the cusp of one of the most significant achievements in ocean racing. 

Now four years after his 2nd place in the Vendée Globe Dalin is more mature, has brought some downtime and relaxation into his life to counterbalance his unfailing demands. Despite what some might otherwise consider the disappointment of missing out on victory in 2021, Dalin is a much happier, better balanced sailor who embraced his second place and made a positive virtue of it. 

Thursday 28 January 2021, Les Sables d'Olonne. It's 5:35 a.m., the very early morning is dark, the winter cold is all encompassing. Yannick Bestaven is mooring on the Vendée Globe pontoon. After being 4th on the line the sailor from Arcachon via La Rochelle is elevated to win the most famous solo round the world race by virtue of time compensation. 

In the crowd on the victory pontoon there is Dalin who had crossed the line the night before. He missed victory by only 2h30. Dalin smiles warmly, accepting, the total sportsman is fully present and answers the press, reminds everyone of the importance of the rules of the game. 

But it is afterwards, so, so many times he reruns the whole race in his head. "I would wake up at night searching to find the minutes I had lost," he recalls.

ANALYTICAL

This scenario alone speaks volumes about Charlie Dalin. A passionate, perfectionist to the end who drills down endlessly to measure each strategic choice. But he is also the discreet gentleman respectful of ocean racing and its demands. 

Dalin does like to remind us that he "comes from a family of landlubbers". His mother is a sales assistant, his father a tour manager for rock bands. They ran a free radio station in Le Havre and his uncle was a singer. Young Charlie helped hid dad at gigs. But getting into sailing happens by a  combination of circumstances: a house rented one summer in Crozon by his grandparents, a sailing course there and Dalin immediately becomes a fan of the open sea. 

"I loved it right away," he says. "When I returned to Le Havre, I continued and joined a club I am still involved with."

Sailing, ahead of everything. 

The passion quickly becomes overarching. The young Dalin loved his sailing lessons, he didn't miss a single edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre and his room was lined with posters of the skippers of the moment. At the table, his mother says that he "showed the direction of the wind with the cutlery", that he "looked for what to do, the angle to take"*. 

His passion for sailing overshadowed everything, even school. "We had given him a challenge: if he wanted to continue sailing, he also had to have good grades," says his mother.

With his school qualifications in hand, he decided to enrol at the University of Southampton to study Naval Architecture. He improves his English all the time, not least by sailing every opportunity he can on the Solent with top English IRC programmes. and strengthens his engineering skills. At the same time he won the Skipper MACIF trials and did well in the Figaro class. That was beginning of an long run of successes. He won the Transat AG2R (2012 with Gildas Morvan), won two France solo offshore racing championship titles (2014 and 2016) and was on the podium four times in the Solitaire du Figaro (2014 to 2017). And during some of this period he was team mates, training partner and rival to a certain Yoann Richomme, whose further educational path traced a similar course. Richomme was at Southampton Solent University at the same time as Dalin, studying yacht design. And in the Figaro they worked together for two years under the Skipper MACIF programme. Richomme overshadowed him memorably at the end of the 2016 La Solitaire du Figaro in La Rochelle. Dalin had actually crossed the finish line and was in the overall winning position when Richomme caught a gust of wind which accelerated him to the finish to save the time he needed to beat Dalin by only a few minutes. The rivalry is only sporting: the two young men like and respect each other and have even been roommates and training partners. 

But Dalin’s performance in the MACIF colours, winning the French solo offshore championship sees him move seamlessly up to the IMOCA. In the colours of Apivia, he benefited from a latest-generation boat (2019), won the Transat Jacques Vabre (with Yann Eliès) and asserted himself as an outsider of choice in the Vendée Globe. Throughout the round-the-world race, the general public discovers a very digital, Cartesian sailor, someone who constantly strives to determine the best option without ever seemingly being bothered by his emotions.

RECHARGED

But second it is. And so recharged, re-energised he steps up his challenge for 2024-25.  He adds to his list of achievements (2nd in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2021, 1st in the Vendée-Arctique-Les Sables d'Olonne 2022, 2nd in the Route du Rhum 2022). He launched MACIF Santé Prévoyance in June 2023 and, a few weeks later, won the Rolex Fastnet Race with Pascal Bidégorry.

The end of the 2023 season promises to peak with two transatlantic races in less than three months: the Transat Jacques Vabre and Retour à la Base. Except that at the last moment, Dalin announces his withdrawal. The cause? A "digestive" medical problem that prevents him from competing. On his return at the beginning of 2024, he took 4th place in The Transat CIC and then dominated the New York Vendée Les Sables d'Olonne, 17 hours ahead of his direct competitors. Many close to him consider that being required to miss these races he has loved so much since his early childhood, and his ultra private medical fight eyes had given a new dimension to his soul. 

In truth it is obvious, it is a new Charlie Dalin. He enjoys taking a holiday in the Caribbean between the two transatlantic races in the spring or allowing himself nearly 20 days of holiday in the middle of summer, something he had refused for many years. He is more relaxed, less under pressure, lighter... 

A few days ago Dalin admitted "maybe to have a little more detachment... I approach things with a little less pressure. In the end, all this doesn't matter, it's just a game." 

And so there is a new wisdom, a renewed pleasure: perhaps this is what was needed to climb the one small step to the very summit of solo ocean racing. 

HIS MAIN VICTORIES

2024: Winner of the New York Vendée – Les Sables d'Olonne
2023: Winner of the Rolex Fastnet Race
2022: Winner of the Vendée Arctique
2020: 2nd in the Vendée Globe
2019 Vendée Globe: Winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre 
2015, 2016: 2nd in the Solitaire du Figaro

*Interview in Paris-Match, October 23, 2024
*Interview in Ouest-France, January 27, 2021