The race has made household names of other British sailors who have had dramatic successes and failures.

Twenty s leave Les Sables D’Olonne, in France, on a 26,000-mile course expected to take three months.

Two other Britons are taking part; Mike Golding from Southampton and Alex Thomson from Gosport near Portsmouth.

The Vendee Globe is 10 times the challenge of anything I have done to date Conrad Humphreys

The biennial race, which is in its fifth edition, will see them pass the southern tips of Africa, Australia and South.

Four years ago, Ellen came second in the same race, making the 24-year-old from the Isle of Wight the fastest woman and youngest person to circumnavigate the globe.

And in the 1996 race, the world watched as Tony Bullimore was rescued after spending a day adrift in his upturned hull.

“Biggest race”

Humphreys, 31, is racing in Hellomoto.

He previously navigated for fellow competitor Mike Golding and qualified for this year’s race after completing the Transat Plymouth to Boston race.

Humphreys described this as the “biggest race” of his life so far.

He said: “The Vendee Globe is 10 times the challenge of anything I have done to date, despite the fact that I have already raced round the world twice in both directions.

“I will be following in the footsteps of some pretty legendary including Pete Goss and Ellen MacArthur.

“No Englishman has ever won this race, in fact less than a dozen have ever finished it.”