After one year in Ocean Fifty, double Olympian Italian-American Francesca Clapcich announced last week the launch of her 2028 Vendée Globe project. With 11th Hour Racing’s support she will take over Boris Herrmann’s robust Malizia Seaexplorer after The Ocean Race Europe, the Transat Café L’OR will be her first race on the boat. Tip & Shaft talked to her this week.
You unveiled your Vendée Globe project last week, why Boris’ boat in particular and the collaboration with Team Malizia?
There was a lot of research into different boats. I know Boris definitely built the boat with the goal of reliability and it might not be the fastest in all the conditions and I absolutely know that, that’s not a secret, but at the same time it is my first Vendee Globe and I thought it was going to be already hard enough. Trying to do it on a boat that is already quite crazy in the South is a lot to manage, it will be an extra challenge. So first I really want to make sure that I start and finish the race in a good place and I’m able to push the boat, without too much breakages. So that was really the thought behind it, and then the other really nice thing was that we talked about collaborating as technical partners and that was really exciting because they know the boat inside out and we’re gonna share a lot of the technical team. I think that’s a really nice part of having a team with the experience. Boris has been really, really helpful in helping structuring the next few years and I do trust them, I trust the experience that they have, and I think it is a massive relief for me to not have to build all that from zero.
What will be the biggest personal challenges in the next year then?
I would say pretty much everything about the project! I think the biggest challenge is to make sure that we keep having reliability on the boat. I’m really keen to go racing and racing a lot. That was also one of the points about getting a used boat and not building a new one and ending up pretty late, so the whole goal is to go racing as much as we can, as best as we can, and of course that comes with a lot of challenges also for the technical team, to make sure that the turnaround of the boat between races is fast. But also that is all done properly. From my side is really learning how to sail the boat in the short-handed configuration. I do have some experience of the Imoca but it’s been crude, it’s a completely different beast to handle when you are by yourself. After the Transat Café L’or I’m happy to do the delivery back ‘faux solo’ to get it going and learn the manoeuvres and learn how to do it properly without doing mistakes and avoiding breakages. So I think that part is about being able to put the time into it and put the energy and the motivation to go on the water and challenge yourself and especially you challenge what you don’t know.
What’s your initial goals in terms of performance on the Transat Café L’Or?
For me personally, it’s quite important to be able to get points already in 2025 and get a good start on that already in this season. The other part is like the full learning process. It’s a new boat for me and I didn’t sail on the boat before so it would be like big, big learning on how to sail the boat, how to push it, how to learn the weaknesses and what to do in that kind of condition where the boat is not the best in the fleet so, be able to like push it. So the first aim is to start and finish the race! That’s a big objective, to get all the points on the table and then I think the boat has the potential to do really well in the transatlantic and Boris definitely showed that already, so it’s up to the human being on it to to be able to to get the maximum potential out of the boat.
“Vendée Globe was so far away”
What does the Vendée Globe challenge mean to you?
It’s something that for me, growing up in a small town in Italy, was way too far. I could see Ellen (MacArthur) and Dee (Caffari) doing these kinds of things, but at that time it was just feeling so far away for me, like almost impossible to achieve. And then I got more involved in the industry and I got lucky enough to do two races around the world (the last two editions of The Ocean Race) and I really love this part of the sport. I went from sailing dinghies to basically going offshore and I definitely love offshore racing, and I think the Vendee Globe is definitely the ultimate goal for a sailor, it’s really hard. At the same time the level is getting so, so high that you’re if you’re not pushing, if the performance is not at a certain level, you will never race properly, so it’s a really cool challenge in my opinion, it’s like, ‘Okay, how can I get this boat going fast enough to be able to be with the top group?’ and, at the same time, ‘How can I manage myself for so many days?’ And learning that full complete aspect of the sport is really motivating for me.
Can you tell us about the budget?
I mean I think I’m really, really lucky on that point of view. 11th hour racing is my title sponsor, they are completely on board and they’re pretty much covering the 100% of our annual budget for the campaign. I think we are in line the top teams of the fleet, I would say we’re definitely able to probably do some technical upgrades to the boat in the next few years, we are able to put some new sails here and there when we need it. So I think we are probably in the range of the top ten in the fleet. It’s really exciting because it’s the first time for me, it doesn’t happen that often.
It must be tough to be based in the USA and have a programme that needs to be based out of France?
Yeah, it’s not that easy. My wife is American, my daughter lives here, goes to school here. So it’s definitely not easy. There are moments in the season that we will have to just make the decision that I need to be in France, most of the sailing is here, but I think we still have a good chance of spending some time at home when the boat is in the shed in the winter and rely a little bit more into the tech team to do the work. I think it’s going to be a balance, you know, I mean my family is not at all against just coming with me to Europe and spending some time with friends.
Photo : Amory Ross / 11th Hour Racing
