Vendée Globe: The President's assessment - "A fantastic race!"

The winner Charlie Dalin only needed 1555 hours and almost 23 minutes for his unleashed winning run at the 10th Vendée Globe. It took Fabrice Amedeo, the official last skipper to cross the finish line, just under 2738 hours. That's how many hours the protagonists of the solo race around the world offered the fans spectacularly exciting sport, big and small stories from the sea.

Vendée Globe: Dalin wins with a fabulous record

After the last boat crossed the finish line off Les Sables d'Olonne within the time limit last Tuesday, the Vendée Globe 2024/2025 is history. At the top, it was a circumnavigation like fans have never seen or experienced before. The new Imoca rockets engaged in thrilling battles before Frenchman Charlie Dalin on 'Macif Santé Prévoyance' sped inexorably towards his well-earned victory in seven-mile boots.

The 40-year-old, who had already finished first in the previous edition but was relegated to second place after time credits for all the skippers involved in the rescue mission for Kevin Escoffier, gave his pursuers no chance this time. Dalin won the race with unrivalled determination, sailing around the world in 64 days and 19 hours, smashing the previous record by a staggering nine days and eight hours.

He achieved an average speed of 17.79 knots and sailed 27,667 nautical miles over ground. Behind him, his compatriots Yoann Richomme, who finished second 23 hours after Dalin with "Paprec Arkéa", and Sébastien Simon on "Groupe Dubreuil", who finished third two days and 17 hours behind Dalin, catapulted themselves into the other podium places.

Boris Herrmann: "Proud of my mental game"

One week after Simon's finish, Frenchman Jérémie Beyou on "Charal" decided the intense battle for fourth to ninth place in his favour. Beyou was followed by Paul Meilhat ("Biotherm") with a formidable final sprint, Nicolas Lunven ("Holcim-PRB") with a strong rookie performance, the somewhat plucked co-favourite Thomas Ruyant ("Vulnerable"), the best skipper and first non-French participant Justine Mettraux from Switzerland ("Teamwork-Team SNEF") and the Brit Sam Goodchild ("Vulnerable").

Boris Herrmann was unable to repeat the success of his fifth place at his premiere four years previously. He finished in twelfth place and had to look elsewhere for satisfaction after early losses, catch-up chases, mental victories over himself and a difficult multi-day storm stage that he mastered with aplomb in the end.

However, the Team Malizia founder feels well equipped for the future, saying: "I'm proud of my own mental game. That was good. Basically, I feel more resilient now, more ready to take on challenges and difficulties. I can imagine that you have to go through a setback like that and take that step to move forward again with strength."

A young woman is the Vendée Globe shooting star

The non-foilers' race was hardly less intense. Frenchman Benjamin Ferré on "Monnoyeur-Duo For a Job" was the first to cross the finish line without foils in 16th place. He was followed just 16 minutes later by Tanguy Le Turquais on "Lazare" after an exciting finish. Jean Le Cam ("Tout Commence En Finistère - Armor-Lux"), the oldest race participant at 65 years of age, took third place in this race with his new non-foiler. Overall, Jean Le Cam sailed to 20th place.

Among the novices with older boats was the Frenchwoman Violette Dorange on "DeVenir" (2006), who finished 25th and, at the age of just 23, sailed her way into the hearts of the fans in a refreshing way. She is the youngest sailor ever to complete the Vendée Globe. She captivated the whole of France. Seven places behind her, the remarkable Jingkun Xu ("Singchain Team Haikou"), who lost his left forearm in an accident as a child, was the first Chinese Vendée Globe sailor to finish the race.

However, the placings only tell part of the story. Mastered challenges, personal highlights, bitter setbacks and tasks, heartache and exuberant joy lined the course. The surprising Vendée Globe bronze medallist Sébastien took the 24-hour record for monohulls to a new dimension with a fabulous 615.33 nautical miles.

The tamed Vendée Globe

This time, defending champion Yannick Bestaven ("Maītre Coq 5"), Maxime Sorel ("V and B Monbana-Mayenne"), Eric Bellion ("Stand As One"), Louis Burton ("Bureau Vallée"), Arnaud Boissières ("La Mie Câline") and Pip Hare ("Medallia") were eliminated. Denis Van Weynbergh also had to be classified as "DNF" one day after reaching the start and finish harbour. Click here for the background. The failure rate of just 17.5 per cent is the lowest of all ten editions. Twice in the past, the rate had even reached 60 per cent.

Brutal missions such as that of Guirec Soudée ("Freelance. com"), who climbed his rig seven times and had to dive under his boat in order to free his keel near Cape Horn, also remain unforgotten from the anniversary race. Imoca President Antoine Mermod describes the race in all its facets as "fantastic". It triggered such strong emotions among the protagonists and supporters "as only the Vendée Globe can".

Mermod emphasised: "We have followed the race with great passion - all the adventures of the sailors, from the first to the last participant. And from November to now it seems to have gone very quickly, but so many things have happened in that time." Dalin's finish was something special, according to Mermod. He explained: "The emotions were so strong because this was a fantastic achievement, especially after what happened four years ago."

The reasons for the Vendée Globe all-time high

The record fleet of 40 boats and their skippers have made the tenth Vendée Globe a high-calibre sporting event. Mermod says that maintaining the same class rules for the last four years has helped to raise the level of reliability of the boats. As has the rigorous qualification process for the premier solo race and the Imoca Globe Series as a whole, which sees the boats racing more than 60 days a year.

"Another positive point," explained Mermod, "is the fact that the last Vendée Globe in 2020/2021 was a success. This meant that most teams were able to find good business partners thanks to the profits they made in that race. This in turn meant that they were able to create stronger teams with a higher level of people involved."

Antoine Mermod continued: "You can see that the technical level and the size of the teams have improved enormously compared to four years ago, which also explains the improvement in reliability." Mermod is optimistic that the record 40-boat fleet can be reached again in 2028.

A Vendée Globe for everyone

"We'll see," said the Imoca conductor, "but there are certainly more than 40 skippers who want to take part next time because it's a fantastic race and a fantastic challenge," he said. "The return for the sponsors and the numbers seem to be very good - we will be publicising this in the coming weeks. But it seems very positive and very strong, and that means it will help skippers find partners and build strong projects, and I hope we can get to 40 again."

The Vendée Globe appeals to young people, people living in cities, people from Brittany and people from all over the world with a non-French background." Antoine Mermod

Antoine Mermod said that the appeal of the Vendée Globe to commercial partners lies in the way it tells the stories of a global solo sailing race and of people at the limit embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. Mermod continued: "When they discover our story, they feel the passion of the race. And that is the way to convince partners to join us".

Mermod also noted that the success of the race was due in large part to the race management team and the SAEM Vendée organisers, whose staff worked around the clock to ensure a successful, safe and well-promoted and managed event. "There were many people who worked hard day and night to make this race a success," Mermod is quoted as saying in a detailed press release issued by Imoca Class on 11 March.

The Vendée Globe future: four exciting years ahead

Mermod's conclusion: "The success of this event is down to the skippers and the teams, but these people have also played a big part in it." And because after the race is before the race, it is fitting that the Imoca class is buzzing. New teams are forming, new skippers are entering the class and boats are changing owners.

Some teams have already left the starting blocks for the run-up to the eleventh Vendée Globe, others are still on their way, fighting for their own campaign or "simply" for promotion to the upper house of solo sailing. Mermod says that the class is now focussing on the challenges ahead. His impression: "You could feel that at the finishes. Most of the skippers are already focussed on next season, which will be a fantastic season with very strong races - especially the Ocean Race Europe, which is a very interesting challenge for the teams."

But it is also "the whole cycle that now lies ahead of us". There are 18 fascinating races on the programme over the next four years. According to Antoine Memrod, they will once again bring "many challenges, many stories. And with a fleet that will continue to improve and play the game."

Beyond the race - Boris Herrmann's Team Malizia has released its own film about the second Vendée Globe of the "Malizia - Seaexplorer" skipper: