On the Bay with Francesca Clapcich

The professional sailor and two-time Olympian stops off in Newport enroute to the Ocean Race Atlantic to talk sustainability and inclusive sailing with 11th Hour Racing.

8 hours ago

Lauren Clem,

Three sailboats on the ocean. The one in front has black sails with a colorful design on them.

Team Francesca Clapcich powered by 11th Hour Racing will sail an IMOCA 60 in the upcoming Ocean Race Atlantic. (Photo by Josselin Didou – Qaptur / 11th Hour Racing)

Francesca Clapcich is no stranger to rough sea conditions.

A competitive sailor who sails at the highest levels of offshore racing, Clapcich represented her home country of Italy in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and became the first Italian to ever win the Ocean Race in 2023. She also represented the United States in the Puig Women’s America’s Cup and skippered the first-ever all-female team in the Ocean Fifty Series.

Next month, she’ll put her skills to the test on the Ocean Race Atlantic, when she and a crew of four (including an onboard reporter) will race an IMOCA 60 from New York to Lorient, France. The team is sponsored by 11^th Hour Racing, a Newport-based organization that puts ocean sustainability and inclusivity in the sport at the forefront of its mission.

“It’s a tricky time of the year because it’s quite late summer, so the conditions are not normally the best,” Clapcich says about the upcoming race.

Earlier this week, Clapcich and her team stopped off in Newport as part of a multi-city Changemakers Tour leading up to their Ocean Race Atlantic launch on Sept. 1. While in town, the team is meeting with young athletes and spotlighting community organizations, including the Conanicut Island Sailing Foundation, the Community Boating Center of New Bedford, TeamFAME and the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

“It’s a great opportunity for us as a team to collaborate with 11^th Hour Racing,” Clapcich says. “The relationship with the local community is as important as our performance on the water.”

In addition to Clapcich, the teams includes Italian sailor Alberto Bona, Swiss sailor Elodie-Jane Mettraux, British sailor Will Harris and French onboard reporter Julien Champolion.

Clapcich worked with 11^th Hour Racing previously in 2022-2023, when she competed in the Ocean Race as part of the 11^th Hour Racing Team. That team also included Bristol native Charlie Enright as skipper and Newporter Amory Ross as onboard reporter. After a mid-race stopover in Newport, the team went on to win the 2022-2023 race.

An image taken onboard a colorful sailboat. The words "Believe, Belong, Achieve" are on the sail.

Sailing on Narragansett Bay with Francesca Clapcich during a stop in Newport. (Photo by Lauren Clem)

The current sponsorship extends beyond the Ocean Race Atlantic and includes Clapcich’s bid to compete in the Vendée Globe in 2028. The prestigious race gathers the sport’s best sailors every four years for a nonstop, round-the-world solo sprint beginning and ending in France.

During this week’s visit to Newport, Clapcich and her team demonstrated the technology that makes the IMOCA 60 not only among the fastest racing yachts on the water, but an ambassador for the team’s eco-friendly mission. The carbon fiber boat is equipped with marine wildlife strike mitigation technology that helps it to avoid whales and report sightings to other boats. Clapcich says they deployed the technology during their previous stop in Boston, where they saw several species of whale outside Boston Harbor.

“Boats are going faster and faster. The climate, the temperature of the water is changing the migration and how the animals move through the water,” she says.

The crew will also gather environmental data during the race to inform the work of scientists, researchers, governments and NGOs. Clapcich says it’s all part of the team’s mission to promote sustainable racing and ocean health.

The team has also taken on several interns as part of its goal to mentor younger generations and promote inclusivity in the sport. Jade Adan is an intern from Rocking the Boat, a Bronx-based organization that supports youth development through wooden boatbuilding, sailing and environmental science. Adan first became involved with the organization in 2016, when they joined the environmental science program.

“I didn’t want to be in the water at first, and that first day, I was on a boat,” they recall.

Adan graduated from the program in 2019 and has since gone on to teach younger students in all three of the organization’s programs. They’ve also taken up sailing and assisted with sailing the IMOCA 60 during the Changemakers Tour.

“My goal is to continue being an educator and I think through being with Team Frankie, I’m getting more insight into different types of sailing,” they say.

The Ocean Race Atlantic will feature another sailor with Rhode Island ties. Cole Brauer, who lives part-time in Newport, is competing in the race with Team Malizia. Brauer told Rhode Island Monthly recently she hopes to compete in the Vendée Globe in 2032.