This article first ran in GreenSportsBlog on February 14, 2024

Francesca ‘Frankie’ Clapcich is a fighter. She overcame personal loss at an early age and a lack of resources to fashion an impressive Olympic sailing career followed by a win with the sustainability-focused 11th Hour Racing Team in the ‘round the world’ Ocean Race.

As the Italian launches a four-year campaign to prepare for her biggest sailing challenge — the 2028 Vendée Globe, a solo, non-stop circumnavigation of the earth — she is passionate about the #ClimateComeback and has just announced a new partnership with 11th Hour Racing around improving access to sport for everyone.

GreenSportsBlog: Francesca, there’s so much to discuss so let’s dive right in. What got you interested in sailing?

Francesca Clapcich: Well Lew, I grew up in Trieste in Northern Italy. Now I have to tell you that my first love was skiing but the mountains are far away; the Adriatic was basically my backyard. And my family had a small boat that we used in summers. I loved the freedom of being on the boat more so than the actual sailing.

One thing I clearly remember from my childhood was watching the Olympics on TV when I was six or seven. I told my parents that someday, I’m going to be an Olympian. I just didn’t know in what sport that would be.

GSB: How did your folks react when you said that?

Francesca: They just kind of shrugged!

GSB: I would too! So, what turned it around for you in terms of actually liking sailing?

Francesca: My dad got leukemia when I was ten. Sailing — being with the other kids and the coaches — kept me away from the hospital and got me out of my own head. And even though I wasn’t a natural talent, I just started to work and work and work at it. And, slowly but surely, I started to like it.

Dad passed away when I was 13; it was a very hard time, of course. Sailing became something I could control when everything around me was chaotic. It helped me heal, it kept me out of trouble, I made friends who are still my ‘besties’, and I got better at it.

GSB: In what sailing class did you compete?

Francesca: I sailed in the Laser class in high school, which is a solo discipline. When I was 15, I started competing in international races, both in junior European and World championships, making Italy’s junior national team in the process.

When I turned 18, I decided to try to make a run for the London 2012 Olympics, but I had no money.

GSB: What did you do?

Francesca: I joined the Italian Air Force. It paid me to sail and to represent the Force and the country. This gave me a salary and with it, stability. The Italian Sailing Federation provided me with a boat, coaching, and expenses. This backing was crucial for my London 2012 campaign and ultimately, I made the team!

GSB: Congratulations! What was that like and how did you do?

Francesca: It was AWESOME! I remember entering the Olympic Stadium for the Opening Ceremony. As we walked onto the field from the tunnel, a huge roar enveloped us. I thought to myself, ‘wow, the British fans really love Italy!’ But it wasn’t us! You see, right behind us was Jamaica and Usain Bolt!

As for the competition itself, I finished in 19th, a decent first showing at an Olympics. The event definitely wasn’t too big for me.

GSB: And it positioned you well to do even better at Rio 2016. With that in mind, what were your next steps?

Francesca: Well, the biggest step was changing class, moving to the 49er FX, which is a two-person event. I was paired with another Olympic sailor, Giulia Conte This of course was completely different than solo and so, I had no idea how we would do together. But I liked the pairing. We were both really experienced — three Olympic Games for Giulia, one for me —, athletic and hard workers. And we just clicked!

Our run up to Rio went really well — In 2015, we won the Italian National Championship, the European Championship and the World Championship!

GSB: Wow! So, how did it go in Rio?

Francesca: We came in 5th, which was a big disappointment. We just were not bold enough; we played things too conservatively. In the Olympics, you just can’t do that. We had to go out and take it and we didn’t. It was not our best week.

GSB: Well, I’m guessing this turned out to be a big learning moment. How did you use this to prepare for Tokyo 2020…or, what turned out to be Tokyo 2021 due to the COVID pandemic?

Francesca: Actually, neither Giulia nor I had the motivation for another four-year Olympics campaign. For my part, I wanted to do a different kind of sailing — long, offshore events like The Ocean Race which goes around the world. The thing was, the Air Force wouldn’t allow me to do it.

So, against the advice of my mom, in 2017 I decided to retire from the Air Force, and try to make one of the teams in the next Ocean Race. It was a big, scary risk because if I didn’t make it, what would I do outside of sailing?

GSB: But I have a strong feeling you did it anyway…

Francesca: You’re right! I went to Portugal and tried out for the ‘Turn the Tide on Plastic’ team, led by the great British sailor, Dee Caffari. I loved their mission — everything was focused on impact of plastic on the ocean and climate change, championing for the elimination of single-use plastic water bottles and raising awareness about microplastics.

GSB: Not surprisingly, I love that mission…and we’ll get deeper into climate in a bit. How did the tryout go?

Francesca: It was very hard. First of all, my English was not good at all at that time and so there was a lot of miscommunication. And I had never done offshore sailing before. But I went out there and sailed, drove the boat, trimmed the sails, all of it. And then Dee told me I had made the team for The Ocean Race 2017-18. What a great feeling that was!

GSB: And your reward was to be on a boat for the better part of a year with four other women and five men in all sorts of weather conditions. To me that does not sound like fun but to you…

Francesca: …it was GREAT! You have to understand that we were a very young team so, we were all learning together. My English got a lot better, and we came in a respectable 5th place. I LOVED the adventure, the drive to improve performance, even the weather. I had found my happy place, sailing the way I wanted to, becoming closer to the person I wanted to be. It was amazing!

GSB: That is wonderful. What came next?

Francesca: After The Ocean Race 2017-18 I did some coaching and in 2021 I had the opportunity to race at the Solitaire du Figaro a solo, offshore race in France, and in doing so, I became the first Italian female sailor ever to take part. It was an amazing experience, and I was presented with the Fighting Spirit award, as I just never gave up!    

Then in 2022, I joined 11th Hour Racing Team, the only US entry in The Ocean Race.  They had a really strong two-fold mission - to not only win The Ocean Race, but also to embed sustainability in everything we did, from the way we built the boat, the food we ate, the energy we consumed, to the way the support team traveled around the world. It was an incredible program to be involved in.

GSB: …The team sponsored by 11th Hour Racing, which has climate action and ocean health as its mission? GSB has interviewed skippers Charlie Enright and Mark Towill — they both are true climate leaders. How did it go?

Francesca: How did it go?! We won it! I became the first Italian, woman or man, to be on a winning team in The Ocean Race and so the Italian press went a bit wild about it. Which was great. And it was very special to have my wife and our baby daughter Harriet there at the start and finish.

GSB: Wow! What to do for an encore?

Francesca: I’m again pivoting to a new challenge. We’ve just announced that 11th Hour Racing will be supporting me in a build-up campaign as I prepare for the 2028 Vendée Globe, the most important solo round the world race.

As I train for this, I will be sharing a ‘People and Climate’ message, that we need to take significant, urgent action on climate and ocean health to improve the lives of billions of people. Ocean health is public health. And we have to take these steps in ways that improve equity, diversity, and access. It’s about the people and how we can make the sport more diverse, equal and equitable for everyone.

Personally, I want to use my privilege as a skipper to advocate for change in the sport, finding tangible solution to bring more diversity in the industry, with the idea that making progress on those issues will be important for everyone, especially women, and under-represented communities. If you can’t see it, if you feel you’re not represented, then it becomes really hard to imagine being successful and potentially having a career in the sport. I want to bring this visibility, speak up, and find solutions.    

GSB: Congratulations on your new partnership with 11th Hour Racing! Your focus on ‘Climate & People’ is much needed. When did you get interested in climate change and why?

Francesca: I have to say that a lifetime of sport has made a big impact on me! I mean, 30 years ago the waters in which I sailed were not nearly as dirty, as acidic, as we see today. That’s human-caused pollution and climate change.

Guanabara Bay, the sailing venue for the 2016 Rio Olympics was particularly terrible from an environmental perspective. Imagine sailing past dishwashers floating in the water! Really, there was anything you could think of and some things you couldn’t passing you by. That was so eye-opening for me. I could literally see our impact in real time.

I also saw the impacts of climate change in two powerful ways starting in 2019 when my wife and I moved to Park City, Utah. The first is that the snow season is clearly shorter than it used to be, which has a significant impact on the local economy. And then, when the snow melts, what is left on the mountain is like a massive dumpster —the trash that has been left intentionally or unknowingly by skiers on their way down the mountain is what remains of the season. So, we go up on the mountain with our neighbors with trash bags to clean up every spring.

Getting rid of this pollution and reducing our carbon footprint is not easy, but it is not at all impossible. We need to start making changes now and that’s why I am excited to do what I can, with 11th Hour Racing’s help, to make a difference.

GSB: Amen, Francesca! You’ve also become an EcoAthletes Champion recently. What led you to take that step?

Francesca: Becoming an EcoAthletes Champion was a natural next step for me and is complementary to my work with 11th Hour Racing, which of course will be centered on sailing. With EcoAthletes, I am excited to interact and collaborate with Champions from other sports and other parts of the world on climate initiatives that improves peoples’ lives.

You can follow Francesca on Instagram and Twitter