Francesca Clapcich in Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe - Day 4
by Team Francesca Clapcich 5 Nov 01:37 PST
5 November 2026
The 2026 Route du Rhum is proving a complete challenge for its solo skippers, with retirements throughout the six classes and three capsizes in the multihulls. But thankfully, all the skippers involved are safe.
The next big challenge facing Francesca, is a deep depression now forming north of the Azores that is set to bring a strong northerly airflow over the next 12 hours and a rough ride onboard 11th Hour Racing.
In the IMOCA fleet, the feature over the last 36 hours has been how the skippers coped with the complex lattice of calms north of the Azores associated with a stationary front that caused havoc with the leading boats.
Approaching the end of her fourth day at sea on board 11th Hour Racing, it is now clear that Francesca has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of this tricky phase in the race, as she climbed from seventh to second at one point and has now made third place her own. This was the result of her position to the south of the leading group which paid off as she found more breeze to keep her moving west while the boats to the north stalled.
This morning 11th Hour Racing is positioned about 260 nautical miles northwest of Ponta Delgada in the Azores. With 2,150 nautical miles [2,474 miles | 3,982 kilometers] still to sail to Guadeloupe, she is around 166 nautical miles [191 miles | 307 kilometers] behind the leader, Corentin Horeau of France on board MACSF, and 30 miles [34 miles | 56 kilometers] behind the German sailor Boris Herrmann on Malizia 4 in second place.
Behind Francesca, the pre-start favourite, Sam Goodchild on MACIF Santé Prévoyance, is making up lost ground in fourth place and is 36 nautical miles [41 miles | 66 kilometers] adrift. Some way to windward of him, and 11 nautical miles [13 miles | 20 kilometers] further back, is the only other female skipper at sea in the IMOCA fleet this morning, Elodie Bonafous on board Association Petits Princes-Quéguinner. It is interesting that Francesca is currently one of four international, or non-French, skippers in the top-eight.
As we have come to expect with its skipper, Francesca has been anticipating what's ahead and preparing for the ordeal to come.
"I spent the last few hours managing the centre of this low to be able to get out from the west side of it. I'm slowly getting there - the pressure is actually building right now, but it's still quite light, so I'm not there yet," she explained.
"I think I might have over-prepared. I was on deck before, managing everything. I took the J0 down. Just organized everything so nothing becomes a mess. At one point I had 22 or 23 knots [25mph | 41kmph] and I went to the J3 and maybe it was a bit too early. But the wind will pick up - it's just a matter of maybe I'm losing too much now being a bit conservative, but we will see," she added.
Francesca is anticipating a rough ride. "It should be 30-35 knots [35-40mph | 55-65kmph] at one point, maybe at some point a little bit more," she said. "The sea state will be pretty big, around three or four metres of waves and messy. It should last - the hard part - around eight hours and with another four hours or so of strong winds, but it will be more manageable. From where I am right now, it will be quite tight angles so it's not really going to be a comfy ride - we'll see."
Ever-competitive, and wanting to protect her current position, Francesca is well aware of the boats around her, as she seeks to pace herself on the rough road to Pointe-à-Pitre. "I am trying to position myself with the group around me - with Boris and MACIF and see how we go," she said.
"And yeah, just trying to get a bit of rest now, eating some food," she added. "All the maneuvers were quite demanding, taking sails down and moving sails around is always a big job but everything else is good. I will let you know in a few hours how this is going."
Follow Francesca on the tracker here