Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing in The Ocean Race Atlantic - Day 3
by Ed Gorman for Team Francesca Clapcich 5 Sep 00:53 PDT
from 1 September 2026
The third day at sea for 11th Hour Racing has seen Francesca and her crew - Elodie-Jane Mettraux, Alberto Bona, and Will Harris - take the lead for the first time in the race, with the boat smashing along in the Gulf Stream at over 30 knots [34mph | 56kmph] of boatspeed.
11th Hour Racing, positioned 75 nautical miles further south than Team Malizia moves to the front of the six-boat pack with United by the Ocean 10 miles behind, with 2,155 nautical miles [2,479 miles | 3,991 kilometers] still to sail.
Team Frankie were seeing remarkable speeds overnight, with the boat hitting nearly 34 knots as they powered their way eastwards, driven by strong southerly winds on the leading edge of the Atlantic low pressure system which is taking the fleet towards Europe.
The fact that 11th Hour Racing was in a position to assume the lead came after a very good few hours onboard as the front-runners encountered an earlier light patch in the breeze. Francesca and her crew took advantage to make gains against both Team Malizia and Paul Meilhat and his crew on United by the Ocean.
Not long afterwards - and before Team Malizia slowed down - Francesca spoke about Team Malizia's impressive early speed in this race onboard their new boat. "They had really high speeds at some points," she said. "I don't think it was so much about tactical decisions or strategic positioning because I think we are doing a pretty good job on that. They are just faster."
Onboard 11th Hour Racing, meanwhile, everything is as it should be and Francesca said she and the rest of the crew - including On Board Reporter (OBR) Julien Champolion - had managed to get some "recovery" sleep during the lighter phase as the boat slowed and the slamming reduced. She spoke about the team dynamics onboard.
"It's four plus Julien as our OBR and of course we all have different skills and different personalities, and we are working together as a team and making sure we are all in the right roles," she said. "We haven't had a lot of manoeuvres, but we did have to do some headsail peels and we have had some strong wind that we have had to manage with a reef and so on. On my watch I was mainly in the pit in the cockpit running the sheets while Will went on deck to check everything was good. I think crew wise, we are just splitting things up in a way that makes sense and that people are comfortable with," she added.
Francesca says there is not a lot of time for talk about things other than the race and what's coming up next, but they try to maintain a fun atmosphere onboard. "We do find time for banter - there is always fun - but of course the time off that we have we try to eat and sleep, so you don't have tons of time to be around chatting with everybody, but we always try to have some fun!"