Charlie Dalin became the first skipper to complete the extraordinary Vendée Globe 2020-21 tonight when he crossed the finish line off Les Sables d’Olonne in the darkness at 20:35’47’’ local time and after 80 days, 6 hours and 15 minutes and 47 seconds at sea.

Dalin, the 36-year-old sailor originally from Le Havre, would normally expect to have secured the overall victory in a race that has changed all perceptions of what a solo round-the-world marathon can look like.

But the graduate in naval architecture from the University of Southampton in England must now watch and wait as the other members of the “famous five,” who have been fighting it out for overall honours, continued their progress towards the finish.

The next to arrive is expected to be Louis Burton on Bureau Vallée 2 who was 70 miles from the line when Dalin finished. He will be followed by German skipper Boris Herrmann on SeaExplorer-Yacht Club de Monaco who had 90 miles to go. Then it will be Thomas Ruyant on LinkedOut with 140 miles on his clock, and finally Yannick Bestaven on Maître Coq IV, who was 160 miles down the track. All of them are expected to cross the line within eight or nine hours of Dalin’s finish time.

The time compensations at the finish, given to Bestaven – 10 hours and 15 minutes – and Herrmann – six hours  – are looking as though they are going to prove decisive in sorting out the final order, with both Bestaven and Herrmann capable of winning on corrected time.

Thus Dalin may well have to accept being the first sailor in Vendée Globe history to “win” the race on the water, but be demoted on corrected time to what is expected to be another position on the podium as a result of diversions made by his rivals to help look for Kevin Escoffier in the Southern Ocean.

The final stages of this epic race saw Dalin and Herrmann take the southerly route towards Les Sables d’Olonne, skirting past Cape Finisterre. Several hundred miles to the north of them, the other three contenders – Burton, Ruyant and Bestaven – sailed a longer course hunting big breeze from an approaching Atlantic depression.

Once the skippers had made their final choices, it was then left to play itself out as Dalin made his way to the finish, followed by Burton and then Herrmann, with every shift in wind direction and change in wind velocity having a potentially decisive impact on the result.

While the top-five skippers have captured the imagination of the French public and sailing fans worldwide, we should not forget four other remarkable performances by the sailors currently in sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth places. The first of them being Damien Seguin on Groupe Apicil, the first non-foiler, who had about 300 miles to go when Dalin finished, then Giancarlo Pedote on Prysmian Group, Jean le Cam on Yes We Cam!, and finally Benjamin Dutreux on OMIA-Water Family. Le Cam will climb the ranking at the finish once 16 hours and 15 minutes is deducted off his time for his successful rescue and subsequent transfer of Escoffier to a French naval vessel.

Among those watching the drama unfold was Britain’s Sam Davies who might have been fully involved in this scrap on Initiatives-Coeur had her boat not been damaged when colliding with an object in the seas off South Africa. She was forced to stop for repairs in Cape Town but chose to set sail and complete the course solo from there.

 
 
 
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Une publication partagée par IMOCA Globe Series (@imocaglobeseries)


In a message from on board, as she made her way up the south Atlantic north of the Falkland Islands, she said this was a day that will not be forgotten in the history of single-handed ocean racing. “The Vendée Globe has never had a finish so close with so many skippers still with a chance to win – just amazing,” she said. “I am sad not be in the race, sad not to be part of that, but this is the Vendée Globe and each one of us is living an amazing adventure that individually we will never forget.”

Davies saluted each of the sailors in the leading group. “I am so impressed by their ability to push hard for so long,” said the Briton who is quite capable of doing exactly that. “The pressure has been relentless. There will be some seriously tired sailors arriving in Les Sables d’Olonne.”

Ed Gorman