The Vendée Globe, the sacralization of single-handed ocean racing
Charlie Dalin discovered sailing through an Optimist internship during his holidays. Several years will follow in 420, much more "fun". After his scientific studies in high school, he flies to England to train as a naval architect. He did not forget about sailing, taking part in regattas on the Solent.
On his return, he alternates missions of architecture and sailing races. It was on his first Mini Transat in 2009 that he confirmed his passion for single-handed sailing.
After several years on the Figaro circuit, he is now the happy skipper of the IMOCA hydrofoil boat Apivia launched in August 2019. And he is about to take the start of his first Vendée Globe, which crowns all his passion for single-handed racing.
"Single-handed sailing, single-handed ocean racing, that's what I enjoy most in all sailing disciplines. The Vendée Globe is clearly the ultimate single-handed race, the longest and most committed to ocean racing. I've been following it for a long time. It's something I've been dreaming about for a long time. It's a goal, even if I don't know exactly how long I've been following it."
It was the 1996 edition that marked the beginning of its appeal for this race. He is 12 years old and his mother gives him the race book, which he will spend his time reading and rereading. In magazines, he devours the stories and rescues of the race.
A great sportsman, he has come to seek performance and surpassing oneself in this Vendée Globe.
"I'm here to pick up a long errand. I've never spent more than 3 weeks at sea, I'm going to multiply that by 3 and a half. Going around the world, in itself, isn't nothing. Even in 2020, it's not insignificant. There are phases of the journey that make me dream."
Like many pledges, he is eager to discover the South Seas he only knows through stories, discussions, books. And to round the mythical Cape Horn.
"I'm also attracted to racing from a performance point of view. Confronting other fast boats, managing their strategy, tactics, preserving equipment, seeing when to attack, when to put your foot down. The sailing sense is even more present in the Vendée Globe."
Apivia, a well-born ship
And he will have to demonstrate his sailing skills, as he is one of the eight skippers to sail on a latest-generation foiler. Apivia is a Verdier design, whose design/build took a year and a half. Launched in August 2019, Charlie Dalin has already sailed 20?000 miles aboard.
"I was very much involved in the design. It's a boat that's meant to be versatile. We didn't want to put all our marbles on one particular speed. It's easy to sail single-handed. It's one of the first latest-generation boats with a protected, completely enclosed cockpit. We had studied the same style of cockpit integrated inside the boat, like Hugo Boss's, without knowing that they had made this choice. In the end, we opted for a slightly more compromised version. It's a little more aft, but completely enclosed, because Apivia is a very fast and wet boat."
This summer, the work involved changing the bow, which is now more spatula-shaped to improve downwind performance. A great deal of ergonomic work was also carried out to provide greater comfort on board, particularly in terms of sleep management.
"One of the big challenges of the race is to get quality, deep sleep. That's important. Everything on board is going in the wrong direction to get that deep sleep. There are noises, shocks, humidity, anxiety-provoking situations when you're sailing very fast, and heat. We knew from the size of the foils that the boat was going to go very fast and comfort was going to suffer a lot."
While the entire crew worked to improve comfort on board this summer, the issue of sleep had been considered before the launch. Charlie Dalin tested different solutions for mattresses, footstools and ergonomic seats.
"We tried everything. We have our final version. I hope it's the right one. In the Arctic Vendee, we had a few phases of speed, but it didn't exceed a few hours. So for the moment, I haven't been able to test this resting solution over very long periods."
Even if this is his first Vendée Globe and his boat has only recently been launched, Charlie Dalin is one of the favourites. It has to be said that he is one of the rare skippers of the latest generation of foilers to have not suffered any major damage to his boat.
"Apivia, we wanted him well born. That's easier said than done. But we've made the boat work right from the start. So we haven't been disrupted in our naval programme. It's a virtuous circle. We can sail more, so by sailing more, we debug the boat more. It gives us more time. The boat's never been tied up at the pontoon for structural problems. More sailing means more reliability."
A year and a half of reliability
For a year and a half, the skipper has been sailing a lot on his boat. Even if last year was a race against time.
"We launched the boat in August and we're starting the Transat Jacques Vabre on October 25, 2019. The team played an important role in doing a huge amount of work in the development of the boat. We often sailed on the weekends, so the team could reattack during the week. We had long evenings, early morning starts, long weekends."
It was a long term job, as Charlie Dalin won the Transat Jacques Vabre and his boat was without any damage. In fact, he took advantage of the opportunity to sail back from Brazil alone to experience this type of sailing.
"This year, the whole list of things to test and validate hasn't changed. "We've obviously had less time because of the health crisis. We've had less time on the water to do all that with the incompressible Vendée Globe deadline. It was a lot of work for the team, a big investment to get the boat ready."
Thanks to this work of optimisation and reliability, and his involvement in the construction thanks to his background as a naval architect, Charlie Dalin knows his boat inside out.
"He's got an easy speed bottom. There's always room for further acceleration, but you get up to a satisfactory speed fairly easily. The foils work at just about any speed. He's not necessarily the fastest in some paces, but he's never the slowest either. Building a boat is a series of decisions. You choose the shape of the hull, the deck plan, the shape of the foils... You decide everything from A to Z. And every decision has an impact, because all the elements are linked together. It's the spiral of design and architecture.
During the first navigation, I had the impression that I already knew him. I also know why we did this or that. It corresponds to the way I navigate, the way I function."
One ranking goal, no time
Attracted by solitude and solitude, spending 70 days alone does not scare him. In fact, it is on the longest races that he feels best. For his first Vendée Globe, he has set himself a ranking goal rather than a course time.
"It's a race, not a record. So the goal is to finish before the 2nd.. e . Going around the world with Apivia is a strong thing. To complete a Vendée Globe in regatta mode, what's more, it's even stronger. That alone will be a great achievement. I'm a competitor even if I'm setting off on this race with a lot of humility. It's a long race, I realise how long it will take. Since I've had my boat, we've nevertheless sailed all over the Atlantic, both long and wide, and we've taken part in a number of sessions at the Finistère Ocean Racing Pole. I've also sailed a lot on my own as well. However, I still haven't managed to reach the number of miles of a Vendée Globe course. It's hard to set a final goal. The race will go on as it is."
Sharing these moments of life at sea
Even though he is a competitor, Charlie Dalin likes to share his race with the people on shore. At ease with making videos, as he did in the Arctic Vendée, he will no doubt be doing the same in the Vendée Globe.
"I like to make pictures. Even though I'm very competitive, and I sail for performance, I also know how to measure my luck. I really like it when the conditions allow it, watching the boat glide across the sea, enjoying the sunset, that special light. There are often conditions that are magical. In the Arctic Vendée, we had flat seas with wind, which enables us to reach very high speeds, with the deck of the boat remaining dry and without any shocks. I just admired the boat gliding along at full speed. It's magical in these conditions. I'm happy to share that with people."
His prognosis for the podium of the Vendée Globe??
Among the boats that I follow the most are Jérémie Beyou and Charal, Hugo Boss on which there are a lot of unknowns, like Corum. We don't have any performance data for these two, but there's a good chance they'll be there.
There's LinkedOut, by Thomas Ruyant, a boat very close to mine, l'Occitane, which is just as efficient, PRB... Samantha Davies has good phases too, she's at the front of the pack.
