Francesca Clapcich on 11th Hour Racing makes gains on Day 2 of the 1000 Race
by Francesca Clapcich 5 May 01:47 PDT
5 May 2026
Francesca Clapcich on Day 2 of the 1000 Race © Team 7 Sailing
After nearly 48 hours at sea and her second night onboard 11th Hour Racing, the Italian-American sailor Francesca Clapcich has moved up from sixth position to fifth in the seven-strong 1000 Race IMOCA fleet as the leaders approach the Fastnet Rock.
Having been battling with Frenchman Arnaud Boissières in sixth and seventh places, Clapcich, who is on her first solo race in the IMOCA Class, was able to accelerate away from him as light winds gave way to new breeze from the north. At the same time, as 11th Hour Racing picked up speed, she overtook Nico D'Estais on Café Joyeux to take fifth place.
This morning, with about 60 miles to go to the Fastnet Rock off the southwest tip of Ireland, which is the northerly turning mark for this short race, Clapcich was averaging 16 knots of boatspeed with a margin over D'Estais of six miles and double that distance over Boissières.
In the race overall, 11th Hour Racing was 12.2 miles behind the longtime leader, Sam Goodchild of Great Britain on MACIF Santé Prévoyance, and less than one mile behind fourth-placed Elodie Bonafous of France on Association Petits Princes-Quéguiner.
In her latest message from on board, the 11th Hour Racing skipper talked about the challenge of racing an IMOCA alone in light winds and strong tidal currents, and how difficult it is to get rest and leave the boat to its own devices even for short periods.
"You really need to be on top of all the manoeuvres and on top of all the details on the boat if you want to sail fast," Clapcich explained. "So it's not that easy to sleep and the wind is so unstable that even if you go to sleep for half an hour, the boat might stop. It's a bit of a push. But I've had a lot of food and water, so I'm just trying to take care of myself."
Clapcich explained that she chose to stay on the east side of the fleet heading northwest past Land's End, as the skippers began to sail into the new breeze from the north. Having been close to Boissières, she was able to pull away.
"I am trying a bit of a different strategy. I wanted to be more far east - trying to attach to the northerly wind earlier. I'm not leading the fleet, so I wanted to do something definitely a bit different. The wind will shift to the left so, of course, being the most furthest right is not ideal. So I have a big goal in the next few hours to really push to get enough speed to put myself parallel with the guys to leeward. Then we will see how it goes," she said.
Earlier Clapcich had a battle on her hands to stay out of the Ushant Traffic Separation Zone as she sailed around the edge of it while being pushed hard towards it by the flood tide sweeping into the English Channel. She was delighted to finally put that obstacle behind her.
"It was tricky," she said. "There was no wind and a really strong current that was pushing us in. It was frustrating. But I made it out clear. I had a nice roadbook [course] on my computer to make sure that I had an extra safety area, because you can easily do seven miles at that speed in the tidal cycle, so you need to make sure you stay out of it."
The next objective later today is the Fastnet Rock which might also present issues, with light winds and an exclusion zone to avoid. Then Clapcich will start heading southwest in the northerly breeze to the first of two virtual marks in the Bay of Biscay.
Follow the race here.