Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing finish second in The Ocean Race Atlantic
by Team Francesca Clapcich 10 Sep 07:33 PDT
10 September 2026
Italian American offshore sailor, Francesca Clapcich and her crew onboard 11th Hour Racing have finished second in the inaugural Ocean Race Atlantic - an eight day sprint from New York, USA, to Lorient, France of 3,248.2 nautical miles [3,737.96 miles | 6,015 kilometers]. The team finished in 7 days, 23 hours 48 minutes and 7 seconds, just 8 minutes and 56 seconds behind race winner United by the Ocean, skippered by Paul Meilhat (FRA).
Clapcich, the only female skipper in the fleet, raced alongside her crew Will Harris (GBR), Elodie-Jane Mettraux (SUI/FRA), and Alberto Bona (ITA), with Julien Champolion (FRA) as the team's onboard reporter. She praised her team and their result: "After a race, you always want more, but this one was quite epic," she said. "When you get that close to winning, you want to win it even more. But just six hours ago, we couldn't have hoped for this result. In the end, we had a shot at winning and finished second, and we're super happy about it.
"Doing a transat like that, over 3,000 miles, and ending up just minutes from each other, that's a dream; that's why we race. We want to race other boats, other teams, and it's pretty cool. It's been fantastic being that close to the other teams, you can actually see them. You're not even sailing the numbers anymore, you're sailing against them, right there in front of you. It's pretty awesome."
As the six-strong IMOCA fleet made their way across the Atlantic they contended with conditions that Clapcich described as "horrendous": strong winds of over 35 knots [40mph | 64kmph] and "waves coming from all sides".
Elodie-Jane Mettraux, who contended with sea-sickness for days in the early stages of the race commented, "Life onboard was terrible. Even on what's supposed to be a comfortable boat, sleeping was impossible, it was too bouncy, and the noise..! The foils screaming, the rudder screaming, it was unbearable. It makes you go a bit crazy out there. We ended up using whatever we could find to sit on, trying to cushion things a little, and it was all about holding one position, hanging on, and trying not to hurt ourselves."
The ending of the race was nearly very different for the crew when, on the final night of racing, around 2310 CEST [2110 UTC], the team discovered that the upper bearing which keeps the shaft of their foil in place had totally broken, requiring the team to slow the boat right down while they made a temporary fix. After trying several solutions unsuccessfully, they stuffed the cavity with a bound rope that pushed the foil back into position, allowing them to resume racing.
Will Harris explained further, "I was on watch when we heard a loud bang - we thought we'd hit something at first. We found carbon splinters and the foil out of place. My first thought was: all that work from seven, eight days of racing, and it's all going to be over now. But working together as a team, we found a temporary repair fast - literally packing it out with ropes - and within 15 minutes we were racing again."
The finish, into the home of offshore yacht racing, Lorient, and where the Italian-American team have their team base, was in stark contrast to the earlier conditions, with just ten knots of wind and a flat sea state.
Co-skipper, Alberto Bona commented, "The forecast had us in for a very fast race - people were talking records, we were aiming for five days. In the end, we hit a different weather system, slower than expected. The race just kept stretching out: new routings, more days of sailing added on. It wasn't easy, conditions were really tough. What we lived through with the team was exceptional. I'd sailed in a team before, but with Francesca, with friends like this, it's a real story. The moment that stayed with me: this morning, after two hours on the helm, in tough conditions, we really had to hold on. In ten minutes, everything hard that came before just melted away. We were so happy."
Every boat races with an Onboard Reporter, and the Team Francesca story was told by Julien Champolion. This was his first Atlantic crossing from west to east. "After eight days, and experiencing 30 or 40 knots of wind on the boat, I said to myself, 'never again', but now that I'm on the pontoon, of course I would do it again! I don't understand the human brain - that you forget it all and decide to go back and do it again and again!"
Gender parity
The Ocean Race mandated a 50/50 gender split for the first time in a race, a rule which Clapcich, whose wider technical and shore support team reflects this diversity, fully supports, along with her Title Sponsor, 11th Hour Racing, the Impact Partner to The Ocean Race.
"I could not be prouder of Francesca and the entire team," commented Jeremy Pochman, CEO and co-founder of 11th Hour Racing. "They fought for every mile and never stopped pushing, right through an extraordinary finish that saw the leading boats battling neck and neck. That resilience, determination, and belief in one another are what this team is all about.
"Any race can deliver great sporting moments, but if we define its success only by what happens between the start and finish lines, we miss its greatest potential. This inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Atlantic asked more of the sport: every crew included two women and two men, and the fleet contributed to vital ocean science while helping make this industry more sustainable.
"That is what made this finish so powerful. We witnessed elite competition at its very best, while also demonstrating what ocean racing can contribute to the world beyond the racecourse. When performance, purpose, and genuine human drama come together like this, the story tells itself."
The Ocean Race Atlantic Ranking as of 1550 CEST: (1350 UTC)
1st: United by the Ocean 7 days 23 hours 39 minutes 11 seconds
2nd: 11th Hour Racing 7 days 23 hours 48 minutes 7 seconds; 8min 56sec behind first
3rd: DMG MORI Global One 8 days 0 hours 1 minutes 40 seconds; 22min 29sec behind first
4th: Team Malizia 8 days 0 hours 6 minutes 40 seconds; 27min 29sec behind first
Still racing:
5th: Embrace the Challenge
6th: MSIG Europe
Next up...
The Ocean Race Atlantic was the third event of the 2026 season for Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing, following two solo races for Clapcich - the 1000 Race and the Vendée Arctique-Les Sables d'Olonne. The final race of the year for Clapcich will also be solo - the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe, which sets off from Saint-Malo, on November 1.
The team will be at the Ocean Live Park in Lorient La Base from September 10 to 13.