Charlie Dalin Wins Vendée Globe and Sets New Record
When Charlie Dalin finished the Vendée Globe on Tuesday morning aboard his IMOCA 60 MACIF Santé Prévoyance, he shattered the prior record by almost 10 days! The race started on November 10, and just 64 days, 19 hours, 22 minutes and 49 seconds later, Dalin had sailed 24,000 miles to cross the finish line off Les Sables-d’Olonne. The prior record was set in 2017 by Armel Le Cléac’h, who finished the race in 74 days, 3 hours, 36 minutes and 46 seconds.
Dalin took the lead in the South Atlantic but relinquished it to Yoann Richomme after passing Cape Leeuwin, Australia. Dalin chased Richomme all the way across the Southern Ocean, rounding Cape Horn in second place just nine-and-a-half minutes behind him. He passed Richomme in the South Atlantic. Though Richomme remained close astern for most of the Atlantic, Dalin worked into a 100-plus-mile lead in the final stretch.
With light airs at the finish, those last 150 miles were slow for Yoann Richomme, as he crossed the line almost 24 hours later, early on Wednesday morning.
The race continues with 32 competitors still on the course. Sébastien Simon on Groupe Dubreuil is in a solid third place with just under 300 miles to go. He’ll also face light, upwind work to reach the finish. Most remaining competitors are making their way north in the Atlantic, and four are still sailing the Southern Ocean on their approach to Cape Horn.
The only American to ever complete the Vendée Globe was Bay Area sailor Bruce Schwab, who sailed his Tom Wylie-designed Open 60 OceanPlanet to ninth place in the 2004/05 edition.
Catch up with the rest of the fleet here.
Amazing dedication for one person to keep motivated and keep pushing!!
I am sure that many people in France will celebrate the first place of Charlie Dalin and the new race record. I cannot imagine what it is like to sail for 64 days and 19 hours at an average speed of 17.8 knots… While Darlin deserves a lot of respect for his accomplishment, it seems that most of the French public has fallen in love with Violette Dorange.
Violette Dorange is 23 and she is the youngest participant in the history of the race. She is currently in 28th position and will hopefully (and likely) finish the race. Her sailing resumé says that she once crossed the English Channel in an Optimist. This is a challenge but nothing like sailing around the world solo on a 60-footer. I don’t even think that she had ever sailed across the equator before this race. A few months before the race, Violette could not find financing for the race, but she met with almost all McDonald’s franchisees of France, and she convinced them to close her budget gap.
My late mother, who had never been on a sailboat, used to call me from France to talk about a sailor winning a race, being dismasted in the middle of the Indian Ocean or establishing a new record. This is because in France, these events are discussed on broadcast TV during prime-time news. As a French native who now lives in California, I have become used to the fact that in the USA, sailing is never discussed on broadcast TV.
An astute reader pointed out a correction to this sentence, “The only American to ever complete the Vendée Globe was Bay Area sailor Bruce Schwab, who sailed his Tom Wylie-designed Open 60 OceanPlanet to ninth place in the 2004/05 edition.” “Rich Wilson did it twice post-Bruce,” said the reader. We checked: Rich Wilson placed ninth in 2009. Per the Vendée Globe website: “Rich Wilson (USA, Great American III), 121d 00h 41’” See https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/the-legend/another-incredible-achievement-desjoyeaux. The website lists Rich Wilson as finishing in 2016 as well: “Rich Wilson (USA, Great American IV) 107D 00h 48mn”. A lot of entries failed to finish that edition. See https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/the-legend/armel-le-cleach-victory-last.