LES SABLES-D'OLONNE, France - At 23 years old, Violette Dorange is set to rewrite nautical record books on Sunday when she becomes the youngest sailor to compete in the Vendee Globe, the gruelling solo round-the-world yacht race.

"This is my first challenge on such a massive scale," she told Reuters. "It’s a journey into the unknown for me — I’ve never experienced the Southern Ocean or the Doldrums. But I’ve often been the youngest in various circuits, and I hope this can inspire others to take on big projects."

Dorange will beat the record set by Swiss Alan Roura in 2016 by a little over a month when she casts off to compete in the 10th edition of the race known as the Everest of the Seas.

The Frenchwoman, who began sailing as a seven-year-old in La Rochelle, was not always passionate about the sport of sailing, however.

"Honestly, I didn’t like it at first," she laughed. "But my older brother and sister were doing it, so I had to join in."

Dorange's love for the sport soon blossomed, however, as she realised it could take her to new places. At 15, she crossed the English Channel in a tiny Optimist dinghy - a child's boat a little over two metres long and just over a metre wide.

She followed that up by crossing the Strait of Gibraltar a year later.

"That Channel crossing started as a joke with her brother," her father, Arnaud Dorange, recalled. "She said she wanted to do something crazy, and it made me laugh."

It took the youngster 15 hours to cross the Channel, but it confirmed her passion for offshore adventures.

"That experience gave me a real taste for the open sea," she said. "It was incredible."

GOOD MEMORIES

Dorange's path to the Vendée Globe began in 2016, when she watched the race’s start and followed the progress of family friend Jean-Pierre Dick, four-times a winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre -- a biennial double-handed race that follows the historic coffee trading route between France and the Americas.

While studying at the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) in Rennes, Dorange met Jean Le Cam, a neighbour at the Port-la-Foret marina in Brittany.

Le Cam, set to compete in a record sixth Vendee Globe this year as the oldest competitor at 65, offered to sell her the boat in which he finished fourth in the 2020-21 race.

"With Jean, there was no need for a contract; a handshake was enough," Dorange’s father said. "Even when funding was tight and other offers came in, he stayed true to his word."

Ranked 14th in the 2024 IMOCA championship -- a series of elite offshore races featuring cutting-edge 60ft yachts -- Dorange remains focused on her goal.

"I want to finish this adventure," she said. "That’s the only thing that matters."

The youngest sailor in the fleet meticulously fills her notebooks with observations to ensure no detail is overlooked.

"It helps clear my mind," she said. "I’m creative, I write a lot. I think they’ll make for good memories when I read them later."

(Reporting by Vincent Daheron in Paris, editing by Ed Osmond)