Who are Dalen and Eliya?

November 10, 20192min read

You probably already know that the winner of the 14th transatlantic race Transat Jacques Vabre in the class was the IMOCA60 yacht crew Apivia – 35-year-old Charles Dalen and 45-year-old Yann Eliya. The result for us is unexpected and raises many questions. The first of them: who are they?

In fact, they are not beginners, especially Elia. Both in France – skippers are known. Just a great French offshore racers so much that we wonder about someone not hear or someone to forget. Because the same Eliya, imagine participated in the Transat Jacques Vabre 6 times and is now a three-time winner of this race. In 2013, excelled in the class Multi50. And in 2017 in IMOCA60, and, moreover, together with Jean-Pierre Dick set a record for yachts of this class, having overcome a distance of 4,350 nautical miles in 13 days, 7 hours, 36 minutes and 46 seconds.

This year the weather conditions were far from ideal, but, nevertheless, Dalen and Eliya (incidentally, they have already performed together for the Transat Jacques Vabre in 2015) went the route of only 4 hours slower than the record in 13 days, 12 hours and 8 minutes.

An important touch: the finish line in the Bay of All Saints in the Brazilian city of Salvador Apivia crossed early Sunday morning (Moscow time). Since then, it has been 15 hours, but none of the other yacht class to complete the race so far and failed. An amazing advantage!

Apivia built on the money of the same name a large insurance company. On the water the yacht was only launched at the end of last summer. This popular of the latest generation IMOCA such at the start of this Transat Jacques Vabre came five. The most “hyped” of them were two – Hugo Boss (Alex Thomson/ Neil McDonald) and Сharal (Jeremy Bau/ Christopher Pratt).

The crew of Hugo Boss, recall, chose the wrong route, fell behind, and then collided with an unidentified object, damaged the keel and being repaired in Cape Verde.

A few days in the lead Сharal (November 5, advantage of the crew was 120 miles away!), but Jeremy Bau and Christopher Pratt summed up the calm Equatorial band. It is generally believed that the farther you go to the West before you turn South, the better. But this year everything turned out the opposite. Apivia turned South 50 miles before the leader – and the more her opponents were not, because Сharal, and the other for a long time stuck in a calm zone.

As a result, the advantage of dalena and Eliya over rivals – hundreds of miles.