Francesca Clapcich reports on her journey in the Ocean Fifty Series

UpWind team in Act 1 of the Ocean Fifty Series © Gauthier Le Bec | UpWind by MerConcept

It's only a couple of weeks since we raced in Saint-Malo and already it is time to focus on Act 2 of the Ocean Fifty Series, and this time we are heading to southern Brittany, France, and La Baule-Pornichet.

Act 1 was a really challenging yet massive learning opportunity for us as a team, and for me personally as a skipper. With only three full days of training as a group of five we arrived in Saint-Malo hungry to show what we can do on the race course. We didn't have that many days on the water before we got there, but the talent that each crew member brought to the racing was super valuable, and we did our best to find the best positions onboard for each of us according to our strengths and weaknesses.

We managed to be always in the pack, fighting against the eight other teams, and put a couple of 5th places on the scoreboard early on in the Act which is really promising for the next event. But we also made a lot of mistakes that pushed us at times to the bottom of the leaderboard... But we are learning from our mistakes and each day debriefed solutions to be better in La Baule-Pornichet.

We always knew success wasn't going to be overnight, and on long journeys like these, I find myself reflecting about how I am surrounded by such incredible sailors who come from multiple different backgrounds with a huge array of experiences. We are all working together to bring our expertise to the table and to maximize our learnings in the short amount of time we have. Each of us is the 'leader' in our own department, and we have massive trust between us in our capacity to lead our area alongside the tech team.

Elodie was trimming the front sails, Anne-Claire was the tactician and checking our performance, Sara was on the bow, and Tiph was in the pit. All of them had to put on such a massive physical effort for every maneuver as the boat is hard to sail and we were racing against a lot of strong guys. I couldn't be prouder how everybody pushed from the start to the end of every day.

And for the tech team it was a big week too, working long hours to make sure the boat was in perfect conditions with early wake-ups each day to get us ready for racing. I can't thank Louis, Fin, Seb, Sterenn, and Manon enough for all the work and the passion they bring each and every day!

So next up is Act 2! I'm back in Concarneau, France, at UpWind by MerConcept's headquarters and we are tackling the job list to get the boat ready, excited to get the new sails onboard, and of course even more excited for the time on the water training with the team!

We will deliver the boat on Monday, June 17 to La Baule-Pornichet working on our racing maneuvers, and keep-on ticking off the jobs list on the technical side.

The format of racing for Act 2 will be similar to the first Act: two days of windward/leeward racing with five crew, followed by a 30-hour offshore race with a three-person crew onboard. It will be a really useful opportunity to test our configuration for the Route de Terre Nueva, where I will sail alongside Elodie and Anne-Claire.

The objectives I've put in place for the team is to practice what we learnt in Saint-Malo, improving our starts, finding the right mode off the line, and overall being more consistent around the race course. We have so many nationalities onboard (French, Swiss, American, and Italian in Saint-Malo) and our communication skills really contribute towards performance. We try to simplify our calls while still being able to talk about the plan, but not an easy task when English is not the first language of most of the team!

I'm really proud to show how far this project has come and where we are headed to. It's refreshing to see that some of the other teams also had a female sailor onboard and in key roles, and when we walk down the dock as a team of strong, talented, and skilled (female) sailors, we show the industry that we can do hard things, and do it to the same level of the other teams, while also ensuring everyone is treated equally and fairly.

The journey is just at the beginning but I know we are heading in the right direction!

www.francescaclapcich.com

UpWind team in Act 1 of the Ocean Fifty Series - photo © Gauthier Le Bec | UpWind by MerConcept