Violette Dorange / Vendée Globe 2024 objective

The Project

Our project consists of financially supporting a 21-year-old young woman who has the ambition to participate in the Vendée Globe 2024 (internationally renowned sailing competition) as skipper, to be involved in the achievement of its course of excellence and to allow Soroptimist to benefit from the media coverage of this event.

The prerequisites other than funding to participate in this competition are as follows:

• Have a boat: she acquired the boat “IMOCA Hubert” on which Jean le CAM won 4th place in the Vendée Globe in 2020.
• Qualify in 2 races, one in 2023 and one in 2024, with this boat, for the Vendée Globe.

The Club de Saintes, initiator of the project, the Poitou Charentes interclub and the many interested French clubs have four main objectives:

• Participate in the operating budget of Violette’s project so that she can participate in the 2024 edition of the Vendée Globe. To be one of the official partners, we need to raise the sum of €105,000 for 3 years which will be used for registrations for the 2023 / 2024 / 2025 races.
•  Benefit from the visibility offered by Violette’s project on social networks to publicize the Soroptimist International of Europe
• Promoting our Soroptimist values
• Motivate girls and women to join the Soroptimist

Project implementation methods

The Club de Saintes has already helped Violette through a Poitou-Charentes interclub to the tune of €15,000 for three years. In return, Violette gave a talk at our tenth Talents de Femmes show and visibility on her social networks (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Newsletters, YouTube, LinkedIn). Violette was also present at the “Soirée des Iles” organized by the Club de Royan on her behalf.

This project presented at the meeting of the Presidents of SI France in December 2022 in Carcassonne, aroused great interest from many clubs. Indeed, the Vendée Globe is the biggest sailing race around the world, solo, non-stop and without assistance.

Context

Born April 17, 2001, Violette Dorange is the youngest of a family of three children. She started sailing on an Optimist type boat at the age of 6.

In parallel with her debut in competition with the Pôle France de La Rochelle, she joined the sport-study section of sailing. She continued her engineering studies at INSA Rennes in the “Sporting Excellence” section, while training in Portla-Forêt, in Finistère.

In 2016, at the age of 15, she became the first woman to cross the Channel in 15 hours on an Optimist. In 2017, she was also the first to cross the Strait of Gibraltar in an Optimist.

In 2019, at the age of 18, she became the youngest woman to participate in the Mini Transat. The following year, she was also the youngest woman to have participated in the Solitaire du Figaro.

Violette Dorange, an ambitious sailor, has been dreaming of the extraordinary world of ocean racing since she was 7 years old and has set herself the goal of participating in the Vendée Globe 2024-2025: a 3-month round-the-world trip solo, aboard an IMOCA, which would make her the youngest woman to participate in this race, even if this record is not her goal.

She wants to set up a project with a reasonable budget, with a reliable boat in order to sail around the world alone. In October 2022, his project took shape with the acquisition of Jean Le Cam’s IMOCA during the 2020 edition of the Vendée Globe.

To achieve this, she juggles between her engineering studies, training, DIY, offshore racing on different media (Mini 6.50, Figaro III), partner meetings and communication around this project.

But much more than a sports project, it is above all a societal project which involves, on the one hand, partners, and on the other, the “Apprentis d’Auteuil” foundation. For two years now, Violette has been supporting the “Apprentis d’Auteuil” foundation and young people in difficulty, by sailing in the colors of this foundation, without financial compensation. It gives them visibility on the sails of the boat and in all kinds of communication.

Expected results

The results are as follows:

• the participation of Violette DORANGE in the 2024 edition of the Vendée Globe
• the resulting media coverage. To date, before the media effect of the Vendée Globe, Violette has accumulated more than 10,000 views for each publication in which Soroptimist appears.
• The Soroptimist logo will be present on the hull and on one of the sails in the area dedicated to official partners.

During these three years, Soroptimist will be able to rely on the image of Violette DORANGE, a model of success and perseverance, to give girls and women the desire to learn, to train, to share, to undertake, even in a rather male environment.

At the same time, it is also a support to the DeVenir project initiated by Violette in favour of disadvantaged youth through the “Apprentis d’Auteuil” foundation.

Evaluation

The success of this project can be evaluated through different actions, namely:

• Violette Dorange’s participation in the Vendée Globe
• The notoriety and media coverage of this race should benefit our NGO. Indeed, the Vendée Globe is becoming increasingly well known internationally.

Thus, at the start and finish of the race, it will be interesting to measure the impact on Soroptimist recruitment:

• the demand for new projects within the clubs,
• the increase in the number of visits and subscribers on the social networks of the different Unions/Clubs
• the image of Soroptimist

This project runs from 2023 to 2025 with the various races that Violette has to take part in before she can line up at the start of the Vendée Globe, which is why it is important that this Project Matching is deployed as quickly as possible so that she can send the necessary funds to complete her project. It is therefore important to indicate a deadline for the funds to be paid in, namely 3 months from the opening of this Project Matching for a free participation with a minimum of 500 euros. The Club of

Saintes will centralize the budget, the partnership agreement, the communication with Violette’s team, the information and will publish regularly on its various communication tools. The partner clubs will be informed directly by email.

If the sum of 105,000 euros is not reached by at least 90%, the funds will be returned to the donor clubs.

If Violette Dorange does not qualify for the Vendée Globe 2024, she will do other round the world races in the IMOCA circuit, which will qualify her for the next Vendée Globe. In which case the funding would remain with her.

Thank you to all the contributors!

• SI Le Léman – France

• SI Royan – France

• SI Nice Azur – France

• SI Perpignan – France

So far, the Club has received donations amounting to € 4000.