A good boat, a skipper, a good team: these are the three ingredients to winning the Vendée Globe?
Yes, but you also have to add a good partner. If you don’t have a good sponsor who supports you through tough times, who is mobilized around the project, it doesn’t work. Everyone has to be at their best.
If you had to define Charlie Dalin?
Charlie is in the prime of his life: 40 years old with experience and still youth. Passion and things to prove. He also has a wealth of skills and knowledge. I wish him to progress further, but he is not far from the top of his game.
Tell us about the boat, the Verdier plan which is said to be versatile…
Yes, it is versatile but it is a boat that we designed to win the Vendée Globe, not to win the Imoca championship. It is typical of the Vendée Globe. Macif is an evolution of Apivia (Dalin’s first Imoca). We wanted to be in the leading group at the Cape of Good Hope to be able to catch the depressions around Antarctica. That’s pretty much what we did. We also knew that we had to be versatile when going up the Atlantic: there, we ticked all the boxes. We followed our entire sheet and the boat corresponds to what we wanted to do.
It’s certain that it’s phosphorous from morning to evening: you must always try to move forward, to progress. We constantly exchange, we compare, we look at what works on the Ultime can probably work on the Imoca. Sometimes, it’s just 5 minutes of discussing a subject, asking François Gabart’s team what they think about this or that subject. It’s good to have the consultation of another expert, of someone who has a different vision than ours. This is undoubtedly a plus, it allows you to have a greater open-mindedness.
Morocco
