11th Hour Racing Team

Francesca Clapcich

Crew member

Italy

Italian yachtswoman Francesca Clapcich (35) has twice represented her country at the Olympic Games – the first at London 2012 saw her place nineteenth in the singlehanded Laser Radial class, while at Rio 2016 crewing for Giulia Conti she finished fifth in the high-performance 49erFX division.

In 2015 Clapcich and Conti went on to win both the European and world titles in the highly competitive twin-trapeze women’s class. In 2016, after finishing second in the 49erFX European Championship, the pair decided to call a halt to Olympic campaigning.

At that point Clapcich turned her attention to ocean racing in the hope of fulfilling her dream of one day racing around the world like The Ocean Race crews whose posters filled her bedroom walls as a child.

Particularly inspired by the performance of the all-women Swedish entry Team SCA in the 2014-15 edition of The Ocean Race, in 2017-18 Clapcich took on her first around-the-world race as part of the young Turn the Tide on Plastic VO65 crew.

Since then she has tried her hand at solo sailing with an entry in the 2021 La Solitaire du Figaro where she became the first female Italian sailor to finish the gruelling event – an experience she says has helped her get used to being part of the four-person crew aboard the state-of-the-art American IMOCA.

Previous participation in The Ocean Race:
2017-18 Turn the Tide on Plastic


  • Italian yachtswoman Francesca Clapcich (35) has twice represented her country at the Olympic Games – the first at London 2012 saw her place nineteenth in the singlehanded Laser Radial class, while at Rio 2016 crewing for Giulia Conti she finished fifth in the high-performance 49erFX division.

    In 2015 Clapcich and Conti went on to win both the European and world titles in the highly competitive twin-trapeze women’s class. In 2016, after finishing second in the 49erFX European Championship, the pair decided to call a halt to Olympic campaigning.

    At that point Clapcich turned her attention to ocean racing in the hope of fulfilling her dream of one day racing around the world like The Ocean Race crews whose posters filled her bedroom walls as a child.

    Particularly inspired by the performance of the all-women Swedish entry Team SCA in the 2014-15 edition of The Ocean Race, in 2017-18 Clapcich took on her first around-the-world race as part of the young Turn the Tide on Plastic VO65 crew.

    Since then she has tried her hand at solo sailing with an entry in the 2021 La Solitaire du Figaro where she became the first female Italian sailor to finish the gruelling event – an experience she says has helped her get used to being part of the four-person crew aboard the state-of-the-art American IMOCA.

    Previous participation in The Ocean Race:
    2017-18 Turn the Tide on Plastic