Charlie Dalin (1984–2026) was a French offshore sailor best known for winning the 2024–2025 Vendée Globe, a non-stop solo race around the world held every four years. He completed the race in 64 days, 19 hours, 22 minutes and 49 seconds, beating the previous record by more than nine days and setting a new benchmark for monohull circumnavigation. He carried out the race while battling gastrointestinal cancer, taking immunotherapy pills during the voyage.
Early life and career
Dalin began sailing dinghies as a child, first in the Optimist and then the 420 class. After school he moved to England to study naval architecture at the University of Southampton. He then took up yacht racing on both sides of the English Channel, competing in the Farr 30 and Farr 52 classes at events such as Cowes Week and the Round the Island Race. In the 2020–2021 Vendée Globe he finished first on the water but was classified second after a penalty, and he later won the IMOCA world championship in 2021 and 2022.
Later years and death
In 2023 Dalin launched MACIF, a new IMOCA 60 monohull. In 2025 he received the World Sailing Sailor of the Year award and was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour in France. He died in Quimper, France, in June 2026 at the age of 42, after about two and a half years of fighting gastrointestinal cancer. He had described his illness in his biography, La Force du destin, published in October 2025.