A little damage and a duel at odds, apart from these two adventures, Charlie Dalin will have spent his world tour heading straight towards victory, beating all previous Vendée Globe records. He crossed the finish line this Tuesday morning at 8:25 a.m. after 64 days at sea.
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He was coming back for a revenge. Charlie Dalin, 41, crossed the finish line in the lead during the last Vendée Globe, but victory escaped him, due to a few hours of bonus time.
A few months before departure, during an interview with France 3 Pays de la Loire, he recounted the sleepless nights redoing all the maneuvers in his head.
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We met Charlie Dalin nine months before the start of the Vendée Globe 2024. Meeting.
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©France 3 Pays de la Loire
But leaving the channel, this November 10, 2024, Charlie Dalin appreciates the spectacle. This is his second Vendée Globe start, but the first where he enjoys the crowds, the banners, the smoke bombs and the popular fervor.
In 2020, the skippers went up the channel in front of deserted quays, in full confinement. In his first video, recorded just after the start, he still seems carried by the clamors and encouragement.
“A crazy day, with this incredible channel exit. Now I know. Now I know what going out with people is like. It was impressive! What energy. Really it was crazy. A good whiff of the crowd before seeing anyone for a long time.“
For a little over three months, Charlie Dalin will cover 24,500 nautical miles, approximately 45,000 kilometers. On November 29, he was the first to pass the Cape of Good Hope and thus complete the first section of the South Atlantic.
But his position as leader is still contested, in particular by Thomas Ruyant who is right on his heels as he enters a soft zone. Charlie Dalin will only be slowed down for three days.
The next day, for the first time in the competition, he saw in the distance the sail of the one who would become his best opponent, the one who would stick to his hull.
In a video, Charlie Dalin mischievously comments: “Look who’s there! Wouldn’t it be this renegade Yoann Richomme? Well, I think so.“
The two skippers met again in the morning, they chatted using the VHF. “He looks in good shape. It’s great to see a former Macif skipper and a friend again. Like that, we find ourselves in the middle of the Indian Ocean, it’s pretty crazy, at the head of the fleet what’s more, so quite a cool encounter.“
-Early December, the calm before the storm. Charlie Dalin leads the rankings and, for once, finds time to get out of the cockpit to get some fresh air on the deck.
“This day feels good because there hasn’t really been any downtime since the Ecuador. Enjoy the sun, inspect the boat.” And find krill, tiny shrimp, washed up on his Imoca.
The rest of the time, he mainly sees the sea from his window, the price of concentration which allows him to lead the race in the lead with a southerly trajectory and a lead on his routings. On December 9, Charlie Dalin crossed Cape Leuwin… while he was taking a nap!
The only real incident in this winning journey was a breakdown that he recounted in a video on December 18.
“Off the coast of New Zealand, I had a little problem with a sail. I had to repair it, it took me 36 hours. It was a bit complicated to work in the sail locker with the boat doing peaks at 30 knots…“
The same day, Charlie Dalin again films the sail of Yoann Richomme who took advantage of this incident to catch up with him.
Several days of regatta followed between the two skippers, in the middle of the Pacific, and it was in second position that Charlie Dalin crossed Cape Horn.
“It’s the Christmas present that all Vendée Globe competitors would have dreamed of having. There are two of us who had it” comments the skipper before starting his Christmas dinner, a lobster tail accompanied by red rice with porcini mushrooms prepared by Mare aux Oiseaux, Eric Guérin’s Michelin-starred restaurant, in the heart of Brière.
On Monday, December 30, Charlie Dalin regained the lead in the ranking, then gradually widened the gap after having avoided a threatening depression. Boosted by this fierce battle with his friend Yoann Richomme, the skipper of Macif is now heading in the lead, as if nothing could stop him.
The trade winds push him, he lines up the miles, always ahead of Yoann Richomme, who manages to reduce his gap several times. In this final sprint, on January 10, the skipper of Paprec Arkea, however, lost two precious hours due to damage and a torn sail.
Meanwhile, Charlie Dalin continues to fly to victory.
He crossed the finish line this Tuesday, January 14 at 8:25 a.m., after 64 days, 19 hours, 22 minutes and 49 seconds spent at sea.
Charlie Dalin thus shatters the record held since 2017 by Armel Le Cléac’h in 74 days.
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