French skipper Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) scored a long awaited, hard earned victory in the 2024 Vendée Globe solo non-stop around the world race when he crossed the finish line off Les Sables d’Olonne on this icy cold Tuesday morning off the Vendée coast.
In so doing he exorcises the spectre of the 2021 - 2021 edition when he crossed the line in first place only to be displaced by Yannick Bestaven who carried a time recompense of 10 hrs and 15 minutes for helping in the rescue of a stricken rival whose IMOCA had sunk suddenly in the Southern Ocean.
But Dalin’s victory today is emphatic and immaculately crafted. The 40 year old smashes the 2016 race record ! As he was during the last race Dalin has been the most consistent leader of this tenth edition of the race, the winning outcome of pairing an immaculately prepared, reliable all round - polyvalent, new generation boat sailed by a skipper who is a master weather strategist, able to maintain an exceptional level of performance over the entire duration of the race.
Dalin led at the Cape of Good Hope and at Cape Leeuwin and chased long time rival Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA) past Cape Horn only 9 minutes and 30 seconds behind. Taking the lead on 30th December in the South Atlantic emerging from a complex weather system off Rio, Dalin has been ahead since.
One of his key gains was an audacious ride, outrunning a monster low pressure in the Southern Ocean, a system which carried winds of 50-60 knots and huge seas behind him, threatening boat breaking damage if it had caught him. But the move, at the time yielded Dalin and Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil), who was second then, an advantage of over 500 miles. But otherwise it has been the reliability of his boat and largely maintaining all his sails intact that have contributed most to his final advantage.
Backyard layline
Yesterday afternoon and last night Dalin enjoyed a relatively sedate final approach to the Vendée coast passing through the Finistèrian training grounds where he honed his skills in the Figaro class in which he won the French offshore solo championship and finished on the podium of La Solitaire du Figaro four times before moving to the IMOCA class in 2019.
Dalin’s performance in the IMOCA in the last three years and throughout this Vendée Globe has been elevated measurably by a rivalry and respectful friendship with Richomme, one which dates back to the Figaro class nearly ten years ago.
In the Figaro consistent Dalin collected five consecutive podiums between and 2018 and the overall season championship in 2014, Richomme won La Solitaire du Figaro twice, in 2016 beating Dalin by five minutes and ten seconds after four stages of solo racing, three of them over 400 miles long.
Last autumn Dalin missed two key Transatlantic races due to a medical issue, a setback that saw him come back with a changed, more relaxed attitude to life but even more driven to make up for lost time. He took a long summer holiday on the water with his family and again between this Spring’s two back-to-back solo Transatlantics made sure he switched off entirely to recharge his batteries.
A Southampton, England trained Naval Architect who notes his first major sailing success as student was wining the Commodore’s Cup on the Solent in British colours, Dalin’s acute, observant mind is always processing details and improvements, contributing at every stage to the design of MACIF Santé Prévoyance, the Verdier design which was launched in 2022 that is similar in concept to the previous APIVIA.
Dalin has raced for MACIF since 2015, first in the Figaro class, and his win in their colours delivers a second Vendée Globe win for the French insurance giant after the 2012 debut victory of Francois Gabart, whose MerConcept company manage the project.
