With Will Harris he leads 11th Hour Racing to 2nd place in the transatlantic race from Le Havre to Martinique. It is the best female placing since Ellen MacArthur in 2005: “An honor, she is my idol”
In the transatlantic regatta with the most sailors in the history of our sailing (eight at the start), the only woman in the group deservedly ends up on the cover: Francesca Clapcich from Trieste, born in 1988, certainly not an unknown given that after a brilliant career in light sailing (two Olympics, in Laser and in the 49er where she also won a European Championship and a World Championship on the bow) she dedicated herself to ocean sailing. With success given that between 2022 and 2023 he ran the Ocean Race on the winning boat 11th Hour Racing. And it is with the same team that Clapcich finished the Transat Café de l’Or in second place, bringing the Imoca 60 together with the British Will Harris. A historic result: the best in the last twenty years for a woman in this regatta: in 2005, the British legend Ellen MacArthur came second with Roland Jourdain. “I grew up with her as a sailing idol and having my name a little closer to hers is an honor I would never have imagined” said the dual citizen from Trieste (who lives in Utah, United States) immediately after arriving. His 11th Hour Racing on the route from Le Havre to Fort de France (Martinique) took 12 days, 1 hour and 32 minutes finishing around six hours after winners Jérémie Beyou and Morgan Lagravière on Charal.
overtaking
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If the success of the expert transalpine crew was never in doubt from the first days of the race, 11th Hour Racing achieved a splendid overtaking in the final trade wind against Macif Santé Prévoyance (Sam Goodchild and Loïs Berrehar) which was difficult to imagine because at that point it was just a matter of making the boats race and not playing tactics. Instead, when there were about 450 miles to go to the finish line, the two Imoca 60s engaged in a beautiful gybing duel, marking each other almost on sight. Clapcich and Harris had in fact managed to shorten the delay to the point of bringing pressure to the French boat: on a crossroads, Macif let 11th Hour Racing go slightly further south: a fatal error which led to the Italian skipper and her teammate being overtaken.
fourth beccaria
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In the same class, fourth position for Ambrogio Beccaria, teamed with the Frenchman Thomas Ruyent on Allagrande Mapei: a good start, for someone like the Milanese who is practically making his debut in the category but still has some regrets. “I’m a little disappointed with the result, because it wasn’t the objective we set ourselves: we weren’t able to fully express the value we know we possess. And some small problems on board slowed us down. Having said that, I consider this transat as the beginning of a long journey with Allagrande Mapei, which will take me on a solo trip around the world in three years” said Beccaria. Who will find himself among his opponents his friend and rival Francesca Clapcich on 11th Hour Racing.
what a battle
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It was a tough ride, overall and as expected, with several twists and turns. Four classes, on different routes and lengths. Obviously they closed the match before all the Ultims, multihulls 32 meters long and 23 meters wide: the favorite SVR Lazartigue of Tom Laperche and the great Frank Cammas crossed the finish line after 10 days, 13 hours and 3 minutes of ocean, ahead of Sodebo of Thomas Coville and Benjamin Schwartz by three and a half hours. The other Italians are all racing in the Class 40s which are still far from Fort de France, slowed down by the light air to the limits of calm. At midnight yesterday, the least distant from the transalpine leaders Douguet-Trehin were Andrea Fornaro and Alessandro Torresani (Influence 2), sixth at around 200 miles. Pietro Luciani (co-skipper of Les Invincibiles) was tenth, just ahead of Luca Rosetti and Matteo Sericano (Maccaferri Futura) while Alberto Riva (co-skipper of Ekinox) was 17th. If the right wind doesn’t build, they are expected to arrive in Martinique no earlier than mid-week.
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