One more trophy on an already full shelf. Navigator Charlie Dalin, one of the best-known faces of French offshore racing, was elected “Sailor of the Year 2025” on Monday December 15 in Paris, after his sparkling victory last winter in the Vendée Globe.
“It’s a beautiful emotion, it’s something I’ve dreamed of for years,” commented after the ceremony the Norman, who in January broke the race record by more than 9 days. Second in the 2020-2021 Vendée Globe, Charlie Dalin managed to take his revenge on the round-the-world race by triumphing in his second attempt. Leading the vast majority of the way, he completed his world tour in just over 64 days – revealing a few months later that he had achieved this feat while suffering from cancer.
An election “unanimously of the votes”, said the president of the jury, Tony Estanguet, at the time of the award ceremony; which constitutes a first in the history of this annual distinction organized by the French Sailing Federation. A few dozen minutes before receiving his trophy, the 41-year-old sailor had already taken to the stage of the Casino de Paris for the first time, to the loud cheers of an audience overwhelmed by seeing the images of his victory in Les Sables-d’Olonne. “I was close to shedding a tear too, luckily it was dark in the room. This victory is a very good memory, the reward for six years of work», he pointed out.
The sailor, father of a 10-year-old boy, revealed in October that he had sailed around the planet with a gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), diagnosed in the fall of 2023, forcing him today to put his sailing career on hold. “I miss the races, the starts, this euphoria, this excitement at the start and at the finish. I feel like I’m reliving that a little bit tonight. It feels good,” he said.
Still ill, he is currently working in Lorient as a naval architect advisor, within the Macif team, and is participating in the design of the team’s next Imoca, which will be helmed by Briton Sam Goodchild. “I work, I go to the gym several times a week to come back quickly, to heal. I do everything to be able to come back to sail, on our beautiful bodies of water, on our beautiful boats», he assured.
The sailor of the year still has the possibility of participating in the Route du Rhum in 2026, “and [s]we allow it.” “I asked Macif to give my response at the end of January. At the moment things are a little better, but there is still work to do,” he said, specifying that he would like “tobe at the start”, without power “make a prediction at this stage”.
