Francesca Clapcich: Send some wind, please, because that’s what we need

In her voice note from onboard 11th Hour Racing early this morning, the frustration and exhaustion of spending a whole night drifting in a windless Bay of Biscay was all too obvious, as Francesca Clapcich described the latest stage of her 1000 Race.

Alongside French skippers Elodie Bonafous (Association Petits Princes-Quéguiner) and Violette Dorange (Initiatives-Coeur), Clapcich has been trapped in a windless zone north of the Trophée Gallimard virtual waypoint (positioned about 150 nautical miles north of Cape Finisterre) and progress in the race has ground to a halt.

This morning Clapcich was listed in fifth place in the seven-strong fleet, but she was within a couple of miles of both Bonafous in third and Dorange in fourth, both of them visible from the cockpit of 11th Hour Racing. The only boat moving was the race leader Sam Goodchild on MACIF Santé Prévoyance, who had passed the waypoint and was sailing into new wind from the east. 

Summarizing a difficult night, Clapcich said: “Another long night - there is absolutely zero wind, zero wind. Of course it is complicated. It is not easy to just spend a night drifting around because that’s what we’ve done, but hopefully this morning there will be a little bit of breeze and we will start moving again.”

She explained that she had managed to get a decent amount of rest, relying on her onboard alarms to wake her if need be. And Clapcich was still looking on the positive side and trying to make the best of a challenging situation.

“I don’t think about results or anything at this point,” she said when asked about the battle for a potential podium finish in this race. “It is already really complicated just to think about moving the boat forward; I’m just keeping learning and doing the right thing hopefully, and trying to enjoy it too. But when you are just floating, the enjoyable part has kind of gone a little bit.”

She said she, Bonafous, and Dorange had been connecting on the radio a little  bit, but have not talked that much. “I think all of us are focused on ourselves, on our boats or trying to get a bit of rest,” she said. “But I can see their mainsails from here, so we are really close.”

The good news is that the further south she gets, the closer to the new wind she will be, with the forecast showing a strengthening east-southeast breeze blowing along the Spanish coast. When this wind sets in and spreads across the eastern Biscay it should provide enough power to get the boats to the finish at Concarneau, largely to windward.

“Right now we are still 48 miles from the waypoint - at this rate it might take 48 hours!” said Clapcich laughing. “But hopefully there’s a little bit of wind coming - we will see. And after the waypoint it is basically about heading to the finish at Concarneau. It will be a long upwind, with some wind, but it looks like there will be enough pressure on the way back.”