A campaign on a human scale

Léna Corbel learned to sail on the Traict du Croisic, between the municipal sailing school and an uncle's boat that never turned down an extra crew member. Engineering studies in Nantes, a project-manager job in the marine industry — and, most weekends, a dock somewhere between La Turballe and Lorient.

She entered the Mini class through its most common door: crewing double-handed on a friend's boat, finishing a Plastimo Lorient Mini exhausted and convinced. In 2025 she bought #1056, a well-designed, well-maintained 2021 production boat — not a laboratory prototype, but a proven design that serious preparation can take a long way.

Since then the campaign has moved at the pace a working life allows: training sessions with the La Turballe pole, qualification miles swallowed during holidays, and those Sunday evenings coming home from the dock with salt on your hands and a to-do list for the following weekend. All of it is documented in the campaign logbook — the wins and the setbacks alike.

The goal is set: on 26 September 2027, cross the start line of the Mini Transat in Les Sables-d'Olonne. 4,050 miles solo, without assistance or shore contact, to Saint-François. The boat is reliable, the skipper is qualified, the route plan is written. What remains is closing the budget — and that is exactly where you enter the story.