There are few sailors of this modern era that have given more to our sport and performed at a higher level than the french sailor Charlie Dalin. Let me try and put this in perspective. In his early forties, knowing that he had a terminal illness, Charlie decided to take on his second Vendee Globe, one of life’s greatest sporting challenges.
He found a sponsor in MACIF Santé Prévoyance, MACIF being a massive health insurance company, and a design team headed by Guillaume Verdier, probably the top yacht designer in the world right now, (certainly in his chosen design arena) and built one of the most incredible IMOCA 60 sailboats ever built. The machine was a fully flying beast, but let’s go back a little.
Dalin was an unlikely champion of anything. His father was a tour manager for French rock bands, his mother was a sales assistant and bus driver but he grew up in Le Havre on the west coast of France close to the epicenter of sailing and the smell of salt water had to be in his blood. He was shy, modest and softly spoken. I met him only once and he demurred to me knowing that I had done a Whitbread or two. Little did he know how famous he would become.
He sailed initially in fully-crewed events but then moved to short-handed and then to solo racing winning his first double-handed transatlantic race in 2012. Then he took on the big guns and joined the Figaro Class which was the proving ground for French solo skippers where he compiled a remarkable run of five podium finishes between 2014 and 2018. He never actually won the event but The Figaro is a proving ground for all sailors of all stripes.
IN 2020 he entered the Vendee Globe and was first across the finish line only to have his title taken away after fellow French sailor Yannick Bestaven was given a time bonus for helping in the rescue of a fellow competitor. Undaunted, he came back in 2024 and pretty much dominated the Vendee winning in an absolute record time of 64 days, 19 hours and 22 minutes.
A few days before the start of the race he was diagnosed with an inoperable tumor and despite his amazing performance, he died yesterday of cancer at the age of 42. A life well lived; a talented life cut short too soon.
Sail on my French brother. You are now an albatross that gives all sailors a beady eye as they try and round Cape Horn. – Brian Hancock.
