Clare Mary Francis MBE (born 17 April 1946) is a British novelist who in her first career as a yachtswoman has twice sailed across the Atlantic on her own.

Francis was born in Thames Ditton in Surrey and spent summer holidays on the Isle of Wight, where she learned to sail.

[1] In 1973, after working in marketing for three years, she took leave to sail singlehandedly across the Atlantic in the Nicholson 32 Gulliver G,[2] departing from Falmouth in Cornwall and arriving, 37 days later, at Newport, Rhode Island.

[3][4] Following this, she received sponsorship to take part in the 1974 Round Britain Race with Eve Bonham, again in Gulliver G.[2] They finished in third place.

During 1977 and 1978, she became the first woman to skipper a yacht in the Whitbread Round the World Race, finishing in fifth place in her Swan 65 ADC Accutrac.