Vendée Globe/ Charlie Dalin: “I feel like I often took a lot of risks”

One week after his victory in the Vendée Globe, we sat down with Charlie Dalin to reflect on his performance and the intensity of this round-the-world race, completed in a mind-blowing 64 days. We discussed his seasons in the Figaro class, his fierce rival Yoann Richomme, and the mental training he’s been working on for years. Here’s the first part of our Anticyclone interview.

Voiles et Voiliers: We’ve seen and heard from you everywhere since your Vendée Globe win. What haven’t you told us yet—about yourself or your race?

Charlie Dalin: Oh wow, I’m not sure! One thing that hasn’t been mentioned much is that the Vendée Globe podium is 100% made up of Figaro sailors. Almost the entire top 10 competed in the Solitaire du Figaro. The generation that dominated this Vendée has been forged on the Figaro circuit over the last ten years: Beyou, Lunven, Meilhat, Mettraux… All of the frontrunners in this 10th edition came through that path. If we want the same level of intensity in the Vendée Globe ten years from now, now is the time to act: we need to promote and support this talent pool, encourage young sailors to join the circuit and stay longer. Each major sponsor in the IMOCA class could back a Figaro with a young hopeful on board so promising sailors can be trained to compete at the top level in the Vendée.

Voiles et Voiliers: Since you brought it up, the other two podium skippers have both won a Solitaire du Figaro. You’ve finished on the podium five times, but never won. Is that a frustration in your sailing career?

Charlie Dalin: Yes, it’s a race I’d still like to win someday. I don’t know if five podiums equal one victory, but that remains an unmatched record. In 2016, I missed the win against Yoann Richomme by five minutes, and in 2018 I finished third when Sébastien Simon won. I’m not sure if I’ll return, because it’s a circuit that requires a lot of commitment. You can’t just rent a Figaro before the Solitaire and hope to win. That’s not realistic.

Voiles et Voiliers: We know you analyze your races a lot. Have you already started doing that for the Vendée Globe?

Charlie Dalin: Yes, we’ve started debriefs with the team. We go through it in small chunks—two-hour sessions—because I’m still a bit tired. It’ll take three or four sessions to go through everything.

Voiles et Voiliers: How do you review a round-the-world race?

Charlie Dalin: We break it down by systems: deck hardware, running rigging, standing rigging… We divide it into sections and analyze everything, plain and simple. We try to do it while it’s still fresh.

Voiles et Voiliers: That’s with your technical team, but have you also started analyzing things in your own head?

Charlie Dalin: Yes. I’ll also debrief with my mental coach, my sleep team… I’ll get my osteopath to check the state of my back. One thing I regret is not taking biological measurements—blood tests, body fat percentage, weight, arm and leg circumference—before and after the race. I know I lost muscle in my thighs, for example, but I don’t know exactly how much.

Voiles et Voiliers: You like to go into that level of detail?

Charlie Dalin: Yes, because I think we can draw conclusions for nutrition and adjust the provisioning. I don’t think you can do much to prevent lower-body muscle loss—I’m not going to start doing squats during the race, it’s already intense enough. But things like blood tests could be useful to understand how nutrition affects the body.

Voiles et Voiliers: Coming back to your victory: people often say a great winner needs a great runner-up. Was Yoann Richomme the perfect opponent?

Charlie Dalin: Yes. From the moment Yoann’s project was announced, I knew he’d be one of my main rivals, even before knowing what boat he’d have, which designer he’d work with, or who’d be on his team. Our paths split at the end of 2016, when his Skipper Macif selection ended. He went on to Class40 and other projects. The first time we were direct competitors again was at the 2023 Rolex Fastnet. We were side by side near the finish, and I ended up five minutes behind him. In 2024, he won the Transat CIC, I won the return leg, the New York Vendée… It was a preview of what would happen in the Vendée.

Voiles et Voiliers: Yoann sailed more miles and was a bit faster…

Charlie Dalin: Yes, I saw the stats at the finish. I think he covered more ground by taking a northerly route around the low near the Kerguelen Islands in the Indian Ocean. I had lighter winds then, while he had stronger winds for longer. But yes, he was a bit faster.

Voiles et Voiliers: You sail very differently. He said he listened to a lot of podcasts, read books… Were you also able to mentally escape the boat?

Charlie Dalin: No, that’s not really my style. I had taken some podcasts, but I didn’t listen to a single one. I did listen to a bit of music. But yes, we don’t sail the same way. I feel like sailing solo isn’t quite his thing—he needs to talk, hear voices, feel a presence. I prefer being in my own bubble. I didn’t pay attention to what was happening on shore. That helps avoid being affected by any particular news.

Voiles et Voiliers: Would you say your way of sailing is compulsive?

Charlie Dalin: Compulsive, I’m not sure. But I do like to stay focused on what I’m doing and not be distracted.

Voiles et Voiliers: Let’s talk about the intensity of this victory. Do you feel like you pushed beyond what you thought was possible?

Charlie Dalin: What’s certain is that breaking 70 days didn’t surprise me, but I would never have bet on going under 65 before the start. We had a crazy run at the front of the fleet. Having Yoann there allowed us to push the boat to the max. It wouldn’t have been the same if one of us had been alone out front—we’d have gone much slower. I feel like I took a lot of risks. I was sailing at the upper edge of the sail configurations a lot. After the doldrums, I kept the full mainsail up when I should’ve reefed—and I did that a bunch of times. I was often overpowered. Off Portugal, I was clocking some crazy speeds. In 27–28 knots of wind, I still had the full mainsail and J0 up… You realize you can hold it and it’s faster. I started sailing like I did in the Figaro again. One day, I nearly hit 600 miles in 24 hours. At that point, I was pushing past what I thought were my limits to catch up to Yoann, but I could tell I was damaging the boat. I didn’t like that. And sure enough, a few days later I found a crack in the hull—that’s when it happened.

Voiles et Voiliers: You also mentioned a lapse…

Charlie Dalin: …in sleep. I don’t remember exactly when, but I slept for three hours straight. That’s not something you normally do. When you realize you overslept, the first thing you check is if you stayed on course. Then you check your average speed during that sleep phase. The body is amazing—if your brain decides not to wake you up, it’s because the conditions haven’t changed. In the end, it was probably a good thing—I needed the rest. But I’m glad it happened in the Southern Ocean and not in the Atlantic, where there’s a lot more traffic.