He has now lost his battle with cancer. The hearts of his family, friends and colleagues are heavy today. The winner of the Vendée Globe has died of cancer at the age of 42. Dalin’s family announced this to the French news agency AFP on 11 June. His wife, Perrine Le Pape, wrote: “It is with deep sadness that my family and I announce the death of my husband, Charlie Dalin, who has passed away after a long illness.” She also asked that the family’s privacy be respected.
“Farewell to a giant” is the headline in the French magazine *Voiles et Voiliers* on 11 June, paying tribute to a sailor who has achieved great things in his sport. Despite his rare form of cancer, which Charlie Dalin only made public after his Vendée Globe triumph in autumn 2025, he had succeeded in reaching the summit with “Macif Santé Prévoyance” in 2024/2025. In his book “La Force du destin” (The Power of Destiny), he had spoken very openly about his rare form of cancer.
Defying fate: from cancer to triumph
He has now lost his battle with cancer, passing away on 11 June at the Cornouaille Hospital. It is also a twist of fate that on this very day, his successor Sam Goodchild crossed the Arctic Circle at the halfway point of the Vendée Arctique aboard Charlie Dalin’s Vendée Globe-winning yacht “Macif Santé Prévoyance”, heralding the start of the second half of the race. Dalin had entrusted the project to Goodchild and remained loyal to his team as a wise advisor for as long as he could.
Charlie Dalin secured his greatest victory in the 10th Vendée Globe on 14 January 2025, after 64 days and 19 hours of racing and a sensational performance. In doing so, he beat the record set by Armel Le Cléac'h in 2017 by almost ten days. It was a doubly sweet triumph, as Dalin had a deep connection with the Vendée Globe.
In autumn 2023, Charlie Dalin learnt that he had cancer. He did not make this public. He fought the disease, remaining courageous, staying the course and proving that dreams can still be achieved even when battling fate. In his book, written in collaboration with the journalist Didier Ravon, the skipper with the glittering track record gave a detailed account of his childhood, his first regattas and, of course, the race of his life and the two very different editions he competed in and experienced.
“One of the best days of my life!”
Dalin had described his triumphant arrival in January 2025 as “undoubtedly one of the finest days of my life”. He said that, after so many years in racing, he had never experienced a moment like it. And he said: “I’ve been dreaming of this victory for four years – first across the line, first in the overall standings!” This sporting triumph had been preceded by Dalin’s first Vendée Globe, which was successful yet ended unhappily. Maestro Dalin had also crossed the finish line first in the 9th Vendée Globe four years earlier.
However, several skippers, including Boris Herrmann, were involved in the rescue operation for Kevin Escoffier in December 2020. The time bonuses later awarded by the jury ensured that Yannick Bestaven won the solo round-the-world race with a lead of around two and a half hours over Dalin. Dalin had experienced the decisive 27 January as a dance on the volcano: first sailing into Les Sables-d’Olonne as the fastest in triumph, only to be overtaken in the end. Like a battle cry, he held on to this for four years: “My story with the Vendée Globe is not over!”
Thoughtful, dynamic and highly assertive: Charlie Dalin, crowned World Sailor of the Year in 2025, was a beacon of the Vendée Globe and of the entire strong French offshore sailing scene. For him, it was love at first sail in 1992, when he first encountered the sport during a holiday course off the Crozon Peninsula in Breton waters. His grandparents had rented a large holiday home there for the whole family – none of whom were sailors – until his mother, Christine, signed Charlie up for a holiday course on a whim. She remembered it vividly, describing his first dinghy experiences to the daily newspaper Ouest France as a “revelation for Charlie”, like a “bolt of lightning”.
From Le Havre to the Offshore Summit
“Back then, it was the sheer freedom that inspired me most,” Dalin once said of the early days of his exploration of a new world of wind and waves. Young Charlie loved the fact that, when sailing, there were no roads or set routes. Just this glittering expanse, where the wind seemed to carry you anywhere. “That invisible force propelling you forward was magical to me,” says the man from the land of Vikings and seafarers, describing what became his lifeblood.
His mother realised: “As soon as he was on the water, he came into his own. When we got back from holiday, I signed him up straight away at Sport Nautique et Plaisance in Le Havre.” Dalin’s career began in his hometown of Le Havre in Normandy – where last summer he had the honour of carrying the Olympic flame through the streets he knew so well – and has never looked back. Even there, a few years later, the young Dalin stood out because he liked to sail 420s single-handed from the trapeze.
He would explain sailing to his parents using his cutlery at the dinner table. His room became a treasure trove of posters of his heroes, autographs and documents. As his passion grew, he would wander around the jetties in Le Havre where the Transat Jacques Vabre boats were moored. “Every two years, I found myself daydreaming amongst the TJV boats,” he recalls. He admired these objects of his growing desire live on the radio, in newspapers and in sailing magazines.
Heavy hearts at the death of Charlie Dalin
He first became aware of the Vendée Globe at the age of twelve. He told *Paris Match* magazine: “Back then, people didn’t follow races in the way they do today. I mainly followed it after the finish, when the sailors handed in all their video cassettes so the footage could be broadcast on television. I never even thought that one day I’d be able to do that myself.” And how right he was! The fact that he had to battle such a serious illness was not known during his last major solo round-the-world voyage.
More about Charlie Dalin
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
