Guyader Bermudes 1000: A resounding victory for Charlie Dalin: Monsieur Dalin's flair for his boat

Start-to-finish victory for Charlie Dalin: The skipper from Le Havre made the first test of strength of the Imoca season look like a walk in the park. The 38-year-old "Apivia" skipper crossed the finish line of the 1,200 nautical mile race to and from Brest at half past one in the morning of 13 May after 4 days, 10 hours, 47 minutes and 30 seconds with an incredible lead over his nearest competitor. In the morning, "Charal" skipper Jérémie Beyou set course for the destination harbour of Brest from a north-westerly direction and still had 100 nautical miles to go at six o'clock in the morning. Behind him, Louis Burton ("Bureau Vallée"), the strong-performing Isabelle Joschke ("Macsf") and Nicolas Lunven ("Banque Populaire") were battling for third place on the podium with only around ten nautical miles between the three boats.

For Charlie Dalin, it's a sweet victory in every respect. He also finished first in his first Vendée Globe in 2020/2021 as co-favourite after 80 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes and 47 seconds, but was later beaten by Yannick Bestaven, who came in third but finished first after receiving time credit for his involvement in the rescue mission for Kevin Escoffier. Charlie Dalin had led the one-handed race around the world 48 per cent of the time. Dalin remembered arriving back at the finish harbour in Brest after the solo - with a beaming smile: "I'm happy to be back."

"It was a great fight"

The detail-obsessed yacht designer and sailor with a high demand for precision laid the foundations for his latest victory with a compelling start and made no mistakes over the course of the sprint, which lasted less than five days. While in the first half of the race it looked as if "the usual suspects", as he himself described Jérémie Beyou on "Charal" and Thomas Ruyant on "Linked Out", might make life difficult for him, Dalin eventually pulled away with the best strategy and high speeds. Looking at Beyou and Ruyant, who had to abandon the race later on with steering problems, Dalin joked: "It was a great battle! We've always been close together since the Vendée Arctic 2020. It was the same in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2021, and it's the same again now." For Dalin, it's a logical three-way battle, "because each of the three of us combines the performance of our boat with experience".

In this race, the soloists were and are challenged in a wide variety of conditions. The 35 knots of wind on the Fastnet Rocks course were tough. "It was pretty sporty," commented Dalin, who fought his way through and increased his lead. This time there was no déjà vu for him with his second places in the Vendée Globe and also in the Transat Jacques Vabre with Paul Meilhat last autumn. This time it was his race. In Dalin's words: "It was as if all the elements came together. I had a reliable and efficient boat that I know inside out. I did quite well in the weather and always had a bit of success when needed. This is my first solo win in my Imoca career, the fourth in the programme since 2019. The year couldn't have started better!" Click here for the tracking and the other intermediate results (please click!).