Team Francesca Clapcich in the Vendée Arctique - Day 1
by Team Francesca Clapcich / 11th Hour Racing 8 Jun 03:48 PDT
8 June 2026
Atmosphere aboard the Imoca 11TH Hour Racing, skippered by Francesca Clapcich during the Vendée Arctique 2026 - at sea on 07/06/2026 © Francesca Clapcich / 11th Hour Racing
After 24 hours at sea, Francesca Clapcich onboard 11th Hour Racing is lying in sixth place in the Vendée Arctique-Les Sables d'Olonne, heading northwest in light winds, but with a fast and rough ride to the southern tip of Ireland to come.
This morning Francesca sounded in good spirits as she summed up her first day back racing in what is her second solo race in the IMOCA Class - after the season-opening 1000 Race - as she continues her build-up to the next Vendée Globe in 2028.
"I am just in the post-frontal situation here," she said. "I just passed the front. I tacked right away into it, on a big right shift, and now I am waiting for the wind to go left again, when I can tack back onto port with the northwesterly flow. And then it will be a long port tack to Ireland."
The Italian-American skipper sounded happy with her progress so far, but admitted that the boats ahead - led by Sam Goodchild on MACIF Santé Prévoyance - were sustaining speeds that she could not match overnight.
"I think overall the race is going OK," she said. "I definitely struggled a little bit with speed during the night on this long port tack. The guys ahead were doing absolutely insane averages and I couldn't match them. The sea state was quite big and at one point I took in a reef and I stayed with the J2 all night."
Her focus right now is trying to match their pace. And when the wind comes on again, she will be looking to make up her four-mile deficit on Violette Dorange on Initiatives-Coeur in fifth position and Elodie Bonafous on Association Petits Princes-Quéguiner in fourth place.
"It's going to be another kind of speed race to Ireland, so I will try to hang in there as much as I can," said Francesca. "I am trying to figure it out - maybe something a little bit different in the set-up and configuration of the boat? At one point there will be a peel to the J3, so it will be one reef and J3 and yeah, maybe that will be pretty nice, we will see."
Having had some sleep in the night and now re-charged her battery, Francesca is ready for the building wind as the nine-strong fleet crosses the mouth of the English Channel and heads towards the Fastnet Rock off south-west Ireland.
"The next few days are dominated by the northwesterly flow that is pushed by a low pressure system, and it's going to build gradually all the way to Ireland," Francesca explained. "When we get there, it will be a pretty significant sea state - four metre waves and 25 knots of wind, so at that point the objective is really just preserving the boat in a way that we do not do any damage."
Francesca said she was happy enough with her start on Sunday off Les Sables d'Olonne and was tempted to follow her Italian rival Ambrogio Beccaria onboard Allagrande MAPEI, who alone went inside the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) north of the Île d'Yeu.
"But," she said, "I was a bit scared to be too late inside the TSS... and I chickened out. He committed and made a pretty good gain at that moment. But I managed to stay in phase with the wind after that."