Francesca Clapcich and the Big Four: A First in Sailing History

The Italian-American sailor Francesca Clapcich is on course to achieve something no one in the sport of sailing has ever managed – man or woman – to become the first person to compete at the Olympics, in The Ocean Race, the America’s Cup and in the Vendée Globe.

Clapcich, who grew up in Trieste in northeast Italy but is now a dual Italian-American citizen, is being sponsored by US-based 11th Hour Racing to take part in the 2028 Vendée Globe, and the IMOCA Globe Series races that lead up to it, onboard the boat formerly skippered by Germany’s Boris Herrmann.

Her planned participation in the solo round the world marathon follows two Olympic campaigns – in the Laser Radial class and then the 49erFX with Giulia Conti; two Ocean Race campaigns – with Turn the Tide on Plastic and then race winners 11th Hour Racing Team; and playing a key role in the first ever US Women’s America's Cup team with American Magic.

After all that and still just 37, Clapcich is turning her attention to arguably the ultimate challenge in the sport – racing alone and unassisted around the world, non-stop, in a foiling IMOCA yacht. If she completes the race, she will become not just the first sailor to compete in the “big four” events in the sport, but also the first Italian or American woman to finish the Vendée Globe.

© PUIG Women’s America’s Cup

Charming, modest but driven, Clapcich admits the new campaign is like a dream come true. “I have to pinch myself a little bit now,” she says laughing. “Sometimes I wake up in the morning and still have to work out if it’s real or not. It will sink in eventually at some point,” she adds.

One thing is clear, this powerhouse of a personality who lives in Park City, Utah with her young daughter Harriet and wife Sally Barkow – a former professional sailor and Olympian – never set out to conquer the “big four.” It’s just happened as she has pursued one form of the sport after another at elite level. 

“I never thought about records or something that no one has ever done before. I never started any project with that first objective. I guess it’s just a testament to the fact that I love sailing in all its different aspects,” she says.

Her goal with this campaign is to get around the world and complete the course and then take it from there. “I have been following the Vendée Globe in the last few editions,” Clapcich explains. “It’s an extremely exciting race, but at the same time I have never done it before, so I am really trying to keep my expectations level and try to live year-by-year everything that is going to come in front of me. I’m going step-by-step because I think if you put yourself in this crazy position and have expectations about events and results, it’s going to be really tough to live like that.”

Clapcich knows that in 11th Hour Racing she has the perfect sponsor, an organisation with strong environmental credentials and an elite racing pedigree which also reflects her own ideals as a leading voice promoting diversity and inclusion in sport and society. “It’s really special to have a sponsor who has really bought into my projects and they are so excited and aligned with the social purpose message that we have too,” she said.

© Amory Ross / 11th Hour Racing / The Ocean Race

Clapcich, whose heroes growing up were not sailors but great Italian skiers like Deborah Compagnoni and Alberto Tomba, wants to share her Vendée Globe journey with a new audience in the USA and around the world. “I would love to reach people and communities that have never heard about this race and I’d also like to show that you can also grow up in a small, not fancy sailing club in Italy and still make it,” she says.

And she feels the American sporting public is ready to take on the race like never before, especially after Cole Brauer’s recent exploits sailing alone around the world. “I think the audience in the US is completely ready for it. It’s just about finding a good strategy to be able to show what it means, what’s out there, why we are doing it and why it’s so important,” she adds. “11th Hour Racing is an American organisation and, for sure, the US is a massive hotspot for us.”

The theme that runs through Clapcich’s remarkable pro sailing career is her innate competitiveness and her love of the process of training and learning that started with the Olympics and then threaded through to The Ocean Race and the Cup. It’s been a journey that has allowed her to accumulate an unprecedented range of experiences, from round the cans racing to pushing an IMOCA hard through the Southern Ocean.

So what is she looking forward to most as she takes on arguably the biggest challenge of her career? “I would say it’s the entire journey,” she says. “For me, it is a learning journey. It’s understanding the boat, it’s working with the team, it’s defining a good connection with them and it’s working together and then, race-by-race, getting the lessons learned and moving on. I always like this journey with everything that I have done…and sometimes the goal at the end kind of takes care of itself. If you are able to put the pieces of the puzzle together, it’s often not that hard to put that last one in too.”

© Eloi Stichelbaut - polaRYSE / 11th Hour Racing

Most newcomers to the Vendée Globe don’t talk about a second race until they have completed the first one. But Clapcich has a unique perspective based on her experience of taking part in different disciplines. She knows that a first go at something can be an experience that logically leads to a follow-up, when the lessons learned can be put to the test. 

“I’m not excluding it you know, because I still remember when I finished my first Ocean Race in 2018, a month after that I was like ‘God, I learnt so much. I feel so ready now. Is it going to happen or not?’ You feel that you have got so much learning and experience that you are ready to take it on again, maybe in a different and better way.”

In the meantime, Clapcich knows she has a lot to learn on the technical side – understanding how everything on her boat works – and is looking forward to her first season on the water in the IMOCA class. The first big test will be this autumn’s double-handed transatlantic race – the Transat Café L’Or from le Havre to Martinique.

It will be a two-handed race but will also be a good opportunity for Clapcich to continue “learning” her boat, as she prepares for her first solo racing next year. And she can't wait to get started on that score after falling in love with solo sailing during her Solitaire du Figaro campaign in 2021. 

“I loved it,” she says. “I loved the challenges. You know, the really cool part of being on the water by yourself, dealing with all sorts of things from performance to routing, the entire spectrum. And that’s when it kind of popped in my head and got me thinking that doing the Vendée Globe would be extremely cool and at the same time a really big challenge in my career and, honestly, what I’ve been missing.”

Ed Gorman