Park City sailor Francesca Clapcich opens solo IMOCA season in 1,000-mile race

Park City-based offshore sailor Francesca "Frankie" Clapcich aboard her 60-foot IMOCA, 11th Hour Racing. Clapcich begins her first solo race May 3 in the 1000 Race, starting in Port-la-Forêt, France. Photo: 11th Hour Racing

The race marks Clapcich’s first time alone aboard her 60-foot foiling IMOCA as she builds toward the 2028 Vendée Globe

PARK CITY, Utah — Park City-based offshore sailor Francesca “Frankie” Clapcich begins a new phase of her Vendée Globe campaign Sunday in her first solo race aboard a 60-foot foiling IMOCA sailboat.

Clapcich is scheduled to compete in the 1000 Race, a roughly 1,000-nautical-mile solo race starting May 3 in Port-la-Forêt, France. The course sends seven IMOCA skippers from Brittany around Fastnet Rock, south of Ireland, across the Bay of Biscay, and back toward France. The race opens the 2026 IMOCA Globe Series season, according to IMOCA.

“It is the first IMOCA race that I’m doing in a solo configuration, which means it is the first time I will be alone on the boat — in fact, the first time I’ve ever sailed a 60-foot IMOCA alone — and it is also the first event of the season for the class,” Clapcich said.

The start marks a major step in Clapcich’s bid to compete in the 2028 Vendée Globe, the solo, nonstop, unassisted race around the world. TownLift previously reported that Clapcich and British co-skipper Will Harris took second in the 2025 Transat Café L’OR, a finish that marked the best IMOCA result for a non-French team since 2011 and the highest finish by a woman in the class in two decades.

Now the challenge changes.

Clapcich said the 1000 Race will require her to manage every element of performance on her own, from sail changes and maneuvers to weather strategy, rest, food, and recovery.

“One of the biggest challenges of this race is that I’m quite used to sailing on this kind of boat in a crewed configuration, which means you do most of the maneuvers, the sail changes, the strategy, everything onboard, with other people around you to help,” Clapcich said. “So being on my own, I need to manage all that alone, without any other help.”

The race will test speed, reliability, and decision-making early in the offshore season, according to Clapcich’s team. Her 2026 calendar includes four major offshore races: the 1000 Race, the Vendée Arctique, the Ocean Race Atlantic, and the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe.

In June, Clapcich is scheduled to race solo from France toward the Arctic Circle and back in the Vendée Arctique. In September, she will race from New York across the Atlantic to France in The Ocean Race Atlantic, followed by a solo Atlantic crossing from Saint-Malo, France, to Guadeloupe in the Route du Rhum.

Her IMOCA, 11th Hour Racing, underwent a four-month winter refit and was relaunched this spring with a new visual identity tied to Clapcich’s Believe, Belong, Achieve campaign. The campaign centers on inclusion, belonging, and performance in sport, and the boat’s new livery was designed by Italian artists Stefano and Marco Schiavon of Van Orton Design, according to 11th Hour Racing.

Clapcich’s team describes Believe, Belong, Achieve as a broader purpose campaign aimed at driving cultural change in sailing and beyond. The initiative focuses on helping people believe in who they are, feel a sense of belonging in the organizations and communities they are part of, and achieve more collectively than they could alone.

For Clapcich, the campaign and the racing are linked.

“I’m not really nervous. I’m pretty content and happy,” Clapcich said. “I might be the one racing, but it is a race that we are doing as a team. Each of us is putting a lot of effort and time into making sure the boat is prepared well.”

Still, the solo start carries weight. Clapcich said the course looks complicated, with light winds at the start, strong currents, and weather systems that will require constant management.

“The race is called the 1000 Race — the course will be around 1,000 nautical miles,” Clapcich said. “It’s quite a complicated race. The conditions seem to be quite tricky — quite light winds at the start with a lot of currents, and I’ll need to work hard to manage the weather systems.”

While much of Clapcich’s year will unfold across the Atlantic, the Park City connection remains close. She said she misses home most when she is away in France, especially as the weather in Utah turns toward summer.

“When it is raining here in France — which it seems to do quite often — I miss home a lot,” Clapcich said. “It’s so nice and dry and sunny and warm back in Park City. And it is just so cozy at home, especially now as we are approaching summer, and you can start riding bikes.”

In quieter moments at sea, Clapcich said she expects to think about riding Park City trails with her daughter, Harriet.

“I ride bikes with my daughter, Harriet, and I miss the trails that we cycle on together when I’m away at sea,” Clapcich said. “So in the very few moments of quietness I’ll have on the boat, that’s what I’ll be thinking about.”