The Believe, Belong, Achieve interns experience Newport, Rhode Island!

The Believe, Belong, Achieve interns officially arrived for the Changemakers Tour in the team's second location: Newport, Rhode Island. The ocean state is the base for 11th Hour Racing where communities from around the world come together to experience the beauty of sailing. Newport was where Team Francesca Clapcich's partnership with Rocking the Boat, a Bronx, NY based nonprofit, came to life. Three of Rocking the Boat's young adult sailing instructors spent the week gaining the skills and experiences to make sailing into a lifelong career.

Meet the Interns!

Jade Adon

Hi! I'm Jade, a non-binary Shore Team Operations intern with the Changemakers Tour. I'm part of the NYC Bronx nonprofit Rocking the Boat, where I worked as the Lead Middle School Program Assistant. I chose to join Team Francesca because I wanted to gain more knowledge about competitive sailing, build up skills I already have like team building and interpersonal communication, and find new opportunities to meet people and grow my network.

Hailley Robles

Hey, I'm Hailley, a 19 year old from the Bronx. I work at Rocking the Boat as a sailing instructor teaching high schoolers. I joined the Changemakers Tour because I wanted to shoot bigger boats and gain more social media and photography experience. Watching Francesca and the 11th Hour Racing team leave Newport back in 2023 is what hooked me in the first place.

Myah Recinos

At Rocking the Boat, I work as a sailing program assistant, helping teach sailing to high school students. I wanted to intern with Team Francesca to learn more about bigger boats beyond what Rocking the Boat offers. I'm currently interning with the Comms team, working on Francesca's social media platforms, and I'm excited to see what other fields exist in the sailing world.

Myah Recinos

Maud Helfgott-polaRYSE / 11th Hour Racing

Finding Our Feet

The workweek kicked off with a bike ride to a Believe, Belong, Achieve workshop run by Team Francesca Clapcich to teach 24 members of TeamFAME the importance of making an environment within their team where everyone knows that they belong. The group played "One Foot In," a simple exercise where you step into a circle if a statement applies to you. It turned out to be surprisingly powerful, a fast way to find out how much you share with people you barely know.

Then came the spaghetti challenge: build the tallest structure out of spaghetti, tape, and string, topped with a tennis ball. The engineering was a work in progress, but the teamwork clicked. The children had an amazing time and later in the week we had the chance for them to teach us a lesson too: a tennis lesson at their annual Tennis Wave where the community of Newport comes together and learns how to play the sport and learn more about TeamFAME. 

Biking itself was its own adventure. Because Team Francesca Clapcich and 11th Hour Racing are big on sustainability, the team gets around Newport mostly by bike. Jade hadn't ridden one before, so Emily Caroe, our team’s Purpose Communications Director, quickly set up lessons with Bike Newport, and by the end of the week the lessons were paying off. Myah was picking up the skill right alongside them.

TeamFAME had a Believe, Belong, Achieve workshop from Team Frankie 

Maud Helfgott - polaRYSE / 11th hour Racing

Boat Tours, Knots, and a New Bedford Connection

The next day brought boat tours for TeamFAME, fresh off their workshop, followed by an afternoon with students from the Community Boating Center of New Bedford, Massachusetts, who came sailing with the crew. Hailley sat down with the center's director, Richard Feeny, and found a lot of overlap with Rocking the Boat's own mission: using sailing as a vehicle for community, education, and access. It was a reminder that this work wasn't isolated. There was a whole network of people in different cities doing the same kind of work, just with different tides and the same ambition.

While the sailing groups rotated, Jade stayed with the students waiting on land and taught a knot lesson, focused on the bowline, a chance to put the educator skills built at Rocking the Boat to use. Jade also spent time telling students about RTB itself and how much it meant to have real access to the waterfront. Watching the wind pick up as groups swapped onto the IMOCA, with kids shouting and laughing through a bumpy, wet ride out and climbing on and off without hesitation, was one of the week's most rewarding moments.

In between it all, Myah, Hailley, and Jade filmed their "Meet the Interns" video together.

Community Boating Center members after having a tour on Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing’s IMOCA 

Meredith Rodgers / 11th Hour Racing

The Big Moment: Sailing the IMOCA

Sailing day was the one everyone had circled in their calendars. Hailley called it the highlight of the trip so far, with nothing quite like being out on a boat built for speed with a team that clearly loved what they did. She also met Dave Reed, who ran the Sailing World Instagram page, and left inspired by his background in the sport, with hopes of working together down the line.

Myah's turn on the IMOCA was just as memorable. Sailing on a boat that size was new territory after years on smaller boats at Rocking the Boat, and watching it heel over so far was, in her words, a definite high point of the trip.

Jade's sailing day came with nerves after watching how fast the boat moved the day before, but it turned into an amazing experience. Jade watched Frankie let guests take the helm and came away with a real sense of how much teamwork it took to sail a boat this size.

Talks, Trophies, and Building the Network

Before Frankie's talk at the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court, Hailley got to network with people from all kinds of sailing backgrounds. Frankie's talk itself was a reminder of the reach and respect she'd built in the sport, sharing her story and how much her team meant to her.

Then came croquet, all in white, at the International Tennis Hall of Fame, with mixed teams from Team Francesca Clapcich and the full 11th Hour Racing crew. It was a day of friendly banter and good energy, with 11th Hour taking home the Changemakers Tour trophy. The team ended the day with a trolley taking everyone through the sites of Newport and at dinner afterward, Jade sat down with Michelle Carnevale, president of 11th Hour Racing, and talked through the range of opportunities Rocking the Boat gave its students. Carnevale, who had worked with RTB before, was glad to hear it firsthand and know that people from all backgrounds are getting access to the world of sailing.

The team giving Frankie heart hands at the New York Yacht Club after her talk with commodore, Clare Harrington

Maud Helfgott - polaRYSE/ 11th hour racing

Along the Way

The interns worked alongside a growing list of partner organizations throughout the week, including the International Tennis Hall of Fame, the Conanicut Island Sailing Foundation, the Community Boating Center of New Bedford, and TeamFAME. 

By the end of the week, one thing came through clearly across all three interns' accounts: the team is close knit, the work is built on strong positive values, and everyone, from Frankie down, is genuinely glad to have them along for the ride.

To follow more of the team throughout the Changemakers Tour, check out our instagram here.

See you all in New York City for the start of The Ocean Race Atlantic!