Charlie, thank you

He closed his eyes. It was Tuesday 14 January 2025 in Les Sables-d’Olonne, one morning after 64 days and 19 hours at sea. Charlie Dalin raised his arms, first on the deck of the Macif, then with a bottle of champagne, then with a trophy. Yet each time, he closed his eyes as if to hold back everything that goes unsaid. Charlie Dalin had just won the Vendée Globe, and it would be several months before we learnt that he was engaged in an even greater battle – a battle for life and hope. He closed his eyes and kept his most intimate and intense struggles to himself, battling a cancer that was decidedly more formidable and chilling than the worst of the storms.

A name associated with the Vendée 

It is not just the sailing world, fans of the ‘Vendée’ and all those who love sport who are feeling heavy-hearted today. Charlie Dalin was much more than just a winner. He had the makings of someone who inspires others and makes them want to take on every challenge and fight to kindle hope. We are all made in such a way that, beneath the surface of the sadness of the moment, there remain memories as fleeting as they are intense. Conversations, gestures, a glance, smiles…

Charlie wrote the finest chapters of his story here, his name forever linked to the Vendée: victory in the Vendée Arctique (2022), an incredible display in the New York Vendée (2024) and, finally, the Vendée Globe. We know he brought a few tears to his followers’ eyes on the night of the 2021 finale, when he crossed the line first but ceded victory to Yannick Bestaven. We saw his embarrassment, too, when Yannick said that the “trophy was a bit his”. We were struck by his composure and his ability to put on a brave face, even after losing the goal of a lifetime as a sailor by a matter of hours.
 

“I’ve been swept up by the adventure”

His new programme between the last two Vendée Globes is a model of organisation, supported by a team that, like him, has mastered every aspect of performance. June 2022, the last Vendée Arctique, in appalling conditions: he is in the lead on the line drawn in haste near Iceland, with nature as the sole backdrop to his feat. The next day, he confides in us, with the smile of a child who has just discovered uncharted territory: “I’m someone who likes to plan everything, organise everything, do everything to ensure there are no surprises.” And he adds, with a softness in his voice: “I’ve been caught up in the adventure.”

A different setting, on the other side of the Atlantic. The scene is set in spring 2024, on the jetties facing Manhattan. The New York Vendée is due to start in a few days. Charlie jokes in front of the camera, talking about his holiday – a few days in the Caribbean in a dream setting. “I’ve never been away for so long in the middle of a season,” he smiles. Charlie says he “wants to make the most of it”, conveying this pure joy in his words and, above all, out at sea. For in the New York Vendée, he is the only one to navigate a complex weather system before pulling ahead of the rest by a significant margin. Yet for Charlie, the race doesn’t stop once he’s back at the pontoon; another race begins – the one against that damned gastrointestinal stromal tumour. Battling against all odds, on land as well as at sea.

 His Vendée Globe campaign is also a model of control and composure. Rarely caught out, daring at times, and always a master of his craft, Charlie has put in a colossal performance. It’s amusing to recall that, at the start, he was happy to be the first to leave the jetties at Les Sables d’Olonne, only to be the first to return there 64 days and 19 hours later. We smile at the palpable emotion of the finish, at the Orelsan song he had chosen to warm hearts in the depths of winter.

Behind the engineer, the strategist, the weather genius, that song captured what he is too: a simple bloke, a father, who has lived out his dreams and is now preparing to fight an even tougher battle. “ Deep down, I believe the Earth is round / For one good reason / After travelling round the world / All we want is to be at home”. We think of his son, his wife, his loved ones, his team, all those who have stood by him. We think of him and of that day when, in front of us all, he closed his eyes in happiness.