Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing crosses the startline of The Ocean Race Atlantic

The Ocean Race Atlantic Start aboard Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing © Julien Champolion TFC/11TH / polaRYSE

Italian-American offshore sailor Francesca Clapcich and her crew crossed the startline of The Ocean Race Atlantic this morning at 1000 EDT / 1400 UTC / 1600 CEST in their foiling, 60-foot IMOCA raceboat, 11th Hour Racing.

Clapcich, the only female skipper in the fleet, is joined by co-skipper Alberto Bona (ITA) and crew members Elodie-Jane Mettraux (SUI/FRA) and Will Harris (GBR), forming a gender-balanced racing crew in line with the event's first-ever mandatory 50-50 crew rule. Julien Champolion (FRA) will sail as the onboard reporter, a role that is not included in the crew gender rule.

The six-strong international fleet - representing the USA, Japan, France, Germany, Switzerland, and New Zealand had a send-off in front of the Statue of Liberty the previous afternoon before sailing out to the startline, set roughly 120 nautical miles away from the city. The offshore start was implemented in partnership with the Marine Mammal Advisory Group to steer the fleet clear of the whale-rich waters of New York Harbour and the wider Atlantic migratory corridor, while still delivering a fast, competitive crossing.

For Clapcich, the start in New York held particular meaning. "It's pretty cool to represent both the USA and Italy in this race. I was born in Italy, I grew up in Italy, and then I moved to the US - I'm dual citizen now. It's just who I am, my culture."

On the racing itself, she was direct about what drives her. "It's a race, so I don't do it only for the adventure - we do it because we've got the ability to do well, to push the boat, and compete with the other boats around us. That's what drives me in this sport. It's challenging and we want to do well. Our boat is good in big waves, strong winds, downwind, reaching - better than any other boat in this fleet for the conditions we could face. I'm excited to get going."

Will Harris, who takes on the responsibilities of navigator gave a read on the six-and-a-half-day crossing ahead. "We've got a good boat, but she still needs love - we're going to give her that respect the whole way across, because if we don't, she won't bring us back," he said.

"We start on the back edge of a low that clears fast, with another one building right behind it and tracking hard across the Atlantic by Friday, pushed east by the jet stream straight at our finish line in Brittany. By Sunday that system will have matured into exactly the breeze our foiling boat wants - expect the fleet flat out and close together, with a dogfight in light air right at the finish deciding the race. It's a big low, and low pressure means big wind, big waves, big storms: exactly what this boat is built for."

The fleet will follow the Gulf Stream - one of the planet's most important and increasingly vulnerable ocean systems - and the team's IMOCA, 11th Hour Racing, is fitted with an Ocean Race Essential Ocean Parameter (EOP) Unit, an automated instrument that continuously measures sea surface temperature, salinity, dissolved carbon dioxide, dissolved oxygen, and atmospheric pressure. Collecting around 21,600 measurements a day, the data will be transmitted in real time to science partners including GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Ifremer and CNRS, helping fill critical gaps in ocean observation and climate research.

Team Francesca Clapcich is also carrying Nature's Baton on this leg from New York to Lorient, which was handed over to Clapcich on the dock by actress and ocean advocate Bailey Bass before the team left New York. Clapcich wrote a message for the ocean and placed it inside the symbolic baton as part of the Relay for Nature, founded by The Ocean Race and Peter Thomson, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Ocean. The teams take turns to carry the baton onboard in races and between environmental summits to give the ocean a voice around the issues affecting it. Clapcich's message simply said, "We are trying to take care of you, please take care of us."

The fleet is anticipated to arrive in Lorient, France, around September 8.

This is the only crewed race Clapcich will be competing in this year. After a short break, she'll be back in action, training for the iconic solo race, the Route du Rhum, from Saint-Malo to Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, which departs from the northern Brittany port on November 1, 2026.