New York Vendée secures Charlie Dalin’s invitation to the big one!
By Andrew Threlfall
New York Vendée is a race across the Atlantic Ocean to the coast of Vendée, France. It’s not just a tough test of the worlds best skippers but also the last qualifying event before the next Vendée Globe, which will set sail later this year.
Racing Around The Globe – Won In The Port
French skipper, Charlie Dalin’s win here in Sables d’Olonne came a month after he celebrated his 40th birthday. He adds the win to a long catalogue of podium finishes on his CV. It’s a distinguished collection of results, but here’s the epic part; he was most memorably, first to complete the last Vendée Globe (2021), sailing an immaculately executed first solo circumnavigation.
The drama didn’t end as Charlie reached shore. He was displaced to second, behind French compatriot Yannick Bestaven. Bestaven was given a time compensation for helping in the search for stricken Kevin Escoffier who had to abandon his sinking IMOCA class yatch in the Southern Ocean. Dalin was the perfect sportsman accepting the result with elegance, absolute empathy and understanding.
I shook the debonair Monsieur Dalin by the hand as he celebrated his New York Vendée win: good things and good luck eventually do come to great man of such sportsmanship and valour (watch our exclusive interview).
Coming Over The Horizon
The Vendée Globe yacht takes place in November, 2024. Leaving Sables d’Olonne in France before heading, well, that depends on the weather.
The Vendée Globe is the only sailing race around the world which is solo, non-stop, and completely without assistance. The event formed in the wake of the Golden Globe which had initiated the first circumnavigation of this type via the three capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn) back in 1968. Only one out of the nine pioneers who had set off in 1968 succeeded in returning to Falmouth, the major port of British Cornwall. On 6th April 1969, after 313 days at sea, British sailor Robin Knox-Johnston finally reached his goal.
Fifty-five years later, I’ve returned to Sables d’Olonne in the early summer sunshine to greet the winning yacht from the 2024 New York to Vendée qualifier.
The Vendée Globe is first and foremost a journey beyond the seas and deep down within oneself…Only one sailor has won it twice: Michel Desjoyeaux, in 2001 and 2009. The 10th Vendée Globe will leave Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday 10th November 2024.
Find more information about the New York Vendée here
And the Vendée Globe here
Title Image: Skipper Boris Herrmann races Imoca Malizia – Seaexplorer to second place in the New York Vendée. Les Sables d’Olonne, June 9, 2024. © photo by Olivier Blanchet / Alea
All you need to know about the Vendée Globe: Read our guide here
