France

772 French boats in the governed view. The JPK production fleet, the Figaro tradition, and a momentum-led signature — GRAVITYRUN ahead of GLIDEFORM and DEEPFRAME, raced across the Channel, the Bay of Biscay, and the Breton tidal gates.

Kinship

Every fleet has a fingerprint.

From the Solent’s tide-lines to the Aegean Meltemia — find your waters.

 Hidden Shape

11 archetypes.
How this country's fleet clusters before the results arrive.

How every French boat clusters, before the results arrive.
Photo: Barbetorte / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Kinship

A production-class density unmatched in offshore racing.

772 French boats in the FleetEdge governed fleet, racing under FFVoile across the Channel, the Bay of Biscay, the Breton tidal gates, and the western Mediterranean.

772
boats
15
events
11
archetypes
18.6%
Farr-designed share
National fleet view · FRA sail prefix

ORC Authority: Centre de Calcul FFVoile

FFVoile governs the largest production-class density on the FleetEdge map. First 34.7, First 36.7, Dufour 34, and the J/99 / J/105 cluster anchor a fleet built around club racing on production hulls — and the JPK and Sun Fast short-handed series sit alongside them as the high-performance edge. The Breton coast adds a tidal dimension found nowhere else in the Mediterranean-dominated ORC world — Brittany's raz, the Chenal du Four, and the Raz de Sein are tidal gates where short-handed crews must read the water with the same precision they read the wind.

France's signature now reads as a clear momentum lead over a broad field. GRAVITYRUN tops the fleet at 20.6% — the heavy-mode momentum platform with strong downwind power in sustained breeze, the family the long Biscay and Channel runs reward when the Atlantic fills in. GLIDEFORM follows at 17.9% — the low-drag, efficient-flow signature of the short-handed JPK and Sun Fast canon — with DEEPFRAME third at 10.8%. The top two carry more than a third of the fleet between them, but all eleven archetypes are populated and the long tail stays broad: French depth still comes from breadth across many design families. Farr Design anchors the drawing-board ledger at 18.6%, the most-common design voice across the fleet; Johnstone R (J/Boats) follows at 10.3%.

At a glance

France — structural profile.

Scope
772 boats
427 ORC-rated · 345 mapped-IRC
Top 3 archetypes
  1. GRAVITYRUN — 159 boats (20.6%)
  2. GLIDEFORM — 138 boats (17.9%)
  3. DEEPFRAME — 83 boats (10.8%)
Eleven canonical performance archetypes cluster the fleet by dimensional signature. See the full map →
Top designer cluster
Farr Yacht Design
143 boats (18.5%) — the most-represented design voice in this fleet.

Counts and archetype assignments above are measured from the current corpus. Commentary below is interpretive.

National fleet view · as of 2026-06-21
Hidden Shape

The shape of the French fleet.

772 French boats across 11 archetypes — a momentum-led distribution topped by GRAVITYRUN (20.6%) with GLIDEFORM and DEEPFRAME behind it. Here's how they cluster, and what the collective signature reveals about how France races.

The French Fleet Signature

The French fleet runs on momentum, with a clear lead at the top and a broad field behind. GRAVITYRUN leads at 20.6% (159 boats) — the heavy-mode momentum platform with strong downwind power in sustained breeze, the family the long Biscay and Channel runs reward. GLIDEFORM follows at 17.9% (138 boats), the low-drag, efficient-flow signature of the short-handed JPK and Sun Fast canon, and DEEPFRAME anchors third at 10.8% (83 boats). No narrow championship signature here; all eleven archetypes are populated and the long tail stays broad.

  • GRAVITYRUN 20.6% · 159 boats
  • GLIDEFORM 17.9% · 138 boats
  • DEEPFRAME 10.8% · 83 boats

Dimension emphasis: Sail Performance · Comparative & Time

In 2026, the French fleet races across a cross-Channel and Mediterranean calendar where GRAVITYRUN's downwind momentum and GLIDEFORM's low-drag flow meet their native conditions — Biscay swell, Channel runs, and the tidal gates of the Breton coast.

Complete data Latest published view

GRAVITYRUN

Heavy-mode momentum boat with strong downwind power in sustained breeze.

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 159
Share 20.6%
  • Swan 47
  • C&C 41
  • Sigma 38

GLIDEFORM

Low-drag hull with efficient upwind flow and moderate displacement.

weak upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 138
Share 17.9%
  • J/109
  • Dehler 38
  • Italia 11

DEEPFRAME

Deep-hull efficiency paired with a stiff platform for drag-optimized flow.

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 83
Share 10.8%
  • Swan 60
  • Nautor custom
  • ClubSwan 50

IRONWIND

Stiff, stable-drive platform with predictable load behavior.

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 77
Share 10.0%
  • J/122
  • XP-44
  • Swan 45

AEROMAX

Power-efficiency hybrid with strong upwind drive and moderate displacement.

strong upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 76
Share 9.8%
  • TP52
  • GP42
  • Melges IC37

STORMLINE

Rough-water specialist with a hull shape optimized for steep, short waves.

moderate upwind · strong reaching · moderate downwind

Boats 66
Share 8.5%
  • J/111
  • J/121
  • Fast 40+

KEELFLEX

Narrow stability window; fast when perfectly balanced, punishing when not.

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 61
Share 7.9%
  • First 30
  • X-35
  • J/35

AEROBLADE

Light, agile platform optimized for quick acceleration and flat-water speed.

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 40
Share 5.2%
  • Class 40
  • IMOCA derivatives
  • Pogo 30

STEELCORE

Stiff, platform-rigid hull that holds a stable drive through sustained breeze.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 25
Share 3.2%
  • First 40
  • Bavaria C42
  • Hanse 388

STEELFORM

Heavy-displacement hull with strong directional stability.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 24
Share 3.1%
  • J/70
  • Farr 280
  • SB20

HEADFORCE

High righting moment, upwind-biased hull that powers through chop.

strong upwind · weak reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 21
Share 2.7%
  • First 34.7
  • Grand Soleil 37
  • Sun Fast 3300
Fleet Stories

The French fleet's signature.

Farr Design anchors the French drawing board

Farr Design draws the largest single block of the French fleet — 143 boats, 18.6% of the fleet and the most-represented design voice on the page. It leads a deep field: Johnstone R (J/Boats) follows at 79 boats (10.3%), then Felci behind. Nearly one drawing board in five carries a Farr line, the clearest design signal in an otherwise broad fleet.

A GRAVITYRUN momentum lead

GRAVITYRUN is now the largest single archetype in the French fleet at 20.6% — 159 of 770 classified boats. The heavy-mode momentum platform carries strong downwind power in sustained breeze, and its lead reads as a long-running French tilt toward boats that keep driving on the long Biscay and Channel runs. GLIDEFORM follows at 17.9% on its low-drag short-handed signature; together the top two carry more than a third of the fleet, layered over one of the broadest archetype spreads of any national fleet on the platform.

The First 34.7 production backbone

The First 34.7 is the single most common class in France — 61 boats, 7.9% of the fleet, ahead of the First 36.7 (38) and the Dufour 34 (31). The Beneteau First and Dufour production lines, with the J/Boats short-handed series alongside, give France a club-racing backbone no other national fleet matches for depth.

Popular Classes

The boats that define French racing.

First 34.7 (61)

A Farr Design racer-cruiser — fast, level, and everywhere in French club racing.

First 36.7 (38)

Beneteau's mid-size Farr-designed IRC weapon of the 2000s.

Dufour 34 (31)

Dufour's Felci-designed racer-cruiser — an Italian-French 34 with bite.

J-99 (25)

The J/Boats short-handed offshore specialist — a Class 40 successor in ORC trim.

J-105 (21)

The J/Boats 35 that built club asymmetric racing.

Racing Landscape

French boats compete across the full international and domestic offshore calendar in the FleetEdge fleet. The Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 carries the deepest French entry at 59 boats — the largest single-event French presence in the data — followed by the RORC Cowes-Dinard-St Malo (35), the Spi Ouest-France series at La Trinité (18), the Armen Race (17), and the RORC Cervantes Trophy (12).

La Solitaire du Figaro remains the cultural origin point for French offshore talent, but the modern cross-Channel and Mediterranean campaign circuit is where the production fleet meets the international field. The combination of short-handed engineering and fully-crewed campaign racing produces sailors who travel well, and French entries are competitive across rating systems and fleet types.

Selected Race Result

Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 — Overall

59 of 772 fleet boats competed. 1 race. A 695-nautical-mile offshore point-to-point from Cowes to Cherbourg, scored on corrected time — the largest single-event French presence in the data, and a French overall victory.

Headlines

What led the French entries at the Fastnet.

For Comparative Time, negative = faster than the rating expects (the boat beat its rating); positive = slower. For Crew Residual, negative = the crew beat the boat's archetype-expected pace (stronger execution); positive = below that baseline.

Comparative Time

1. LEON · −77.8 sec/nm
2. SOLENN · −48.0 sec/nm
3. WHIMJY 99 · −44.3 sec/nm
Cohort 16 boats

Upwind VMG (12 kt)

1. GLEN ELLEN · 5.75 kt
2. STAMINA IV · 5.56 kt
3. HEY JUDE · 5.54 kt
Cohort 59 boats

Crew Residual

1. LEON · −81.5 sec/nm
2. SOLENN · −53.3 sec/nm
3. WHIMJY 99 · −45.2 sec/nm
Cohort 16 boats

Comparative Time and Crew Residual are FleetEdge corrected-time analytics computed on the 16 French boats at the Fastnet with comparison records; Upwind VMG is the certificate-derived beat VMG at 12 kt across all 59 entries. Source: published Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 standings · as of 2026-06-21.

Stories

What the Fastnet 2025 entries revealed.

LEON — Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 Champion, IRC Overall

LEON GLIDEFORM, a JPK 1050, won the Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 outright — 1st of 208 boats scored in IRC Overall on the 695-nautical-mile course from Cowes to Cherbourg. The win is corroborated across every FleetEdge lens: LEON also posted the entry's best Comparative Time (−77.8 sec/nm against its ORC median allowance) and its best Crew Residual (−81.5 sec/nm). The scoreboard and the physics agree.

Source: published Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 standings, IRC Overall · rank 1 of 208.

A French one-two at the Fastnet

France took both top steps of IRC Overall. LEON's victory was backed by LANN AEL 3 STEELCORE, a First 35, in second — two French production designs occupying ranks 1 and 2 of a 208-boat international field. One is the JPK short-handed canon, the other the Beneteau First production line: the two pillars of the French fleet's identity, together on the podium of the world's biggest offshore race.

Source: published Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 standings, IRC Overall · LEON rank 1, LANN AEL 3 rank 2.

LEON clears the field by nearly 30 sec/nm

LEON's −77.8 sec/nm Comparative Time lead runs 29.8 sec/nm clear of the runner-up — SOLENN, another JPK 1050, at −48.0 — and a full 33.5 sec/nm ahead of WHIMJY 99 at −44.3. The gap from first to second is wider than the gap from second to eighth. On a 695-nautical-mile course, a margin that size is a structural separation, not a rounding of the scoreboard.

Source: published Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 data delta_sec_per_nm · 16-boat French comparison cohort.

A STORMLINE-heavier Fastnet entry

The French Fastnet entry leans far more STORMLINE than the fleet at large. STORMLINE is 8.6% of the 772-boat French fleet but 31.0% of the French Fastnet entry (18 of 58 classified) — more than triple its baseline share, and the entry's largest archetype. The exposed Channel and Celtic Sea legs pulled the rough-water specialists out in force, with DEEPFRAME and GLIDEFORM tied behind at 20.7% each, while the GRAVITYRUN momentum platform that leads the home fleet travelled in smaller numbers. The race composition is not the fleet composition.

Source: FleetEdge FRA fleet baseline (772 boats, current view) vs the Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 archetypes published 2026-06-08 (58 French boats classified).

Race Archetypes

205 boats classified in the Rolex Fastnet Race 2025.

The Fastnet fleet's structural makeup — how the 205-boat race group clusters across the FleetEdge archetypes, and where the 58-boat French contingent sits within it. AEROBLADE and GRAVITYRUN lead the event lens, with DEEPFRAME and the rough-water STORMLINE close behind. This is the event lens, distinct from the 772-boat national Fleet DNA above.

Archetypes as published 2026-06-08 — the FleetEdge view nearest this event.

AEROBLADE

Light, agile platform optimized for quick acceleration and flat-water speed.

Boats 41
Share 20.0%

GRAVITYRUN

Heavy-mode momentum boat with strong downwind power in sustained breeze.

Boats 40
Share 19.5%

DEEPFRAME

Deep-hull efficiency paired with a stiff platform for drag-optimized flow.

Boats 35
Share 17.1%

STORMLINE

Rough-water specialist with a hull shape optimized for steep, short waves.

Boats 33
Share 16.1%

GLIDEFORM

Low-drag hull with efficient upwind flow and moderate displacement.

Boats 15
Share 7.3%

AEROMAX

Power-efficiency hybrid with strong upwind drive and moderate displacement.

Boats 14
Share 6.8%

STEELFORM

Heavy-displacement hull with strong directional stability.

Boats 11
Share 5.4%

HEADFORCE

High righting moment, upwind-biased hull that powers through chop.

Boats 6
Share 2.9%

BALANCECORE

Heel-sensitive platform with a wider, more forgiving performance envelope.

Boats 4
Share 2.0%

IRONWIND

Stiff, stable-drive platform with predictable load behavior.

Boats 4
Share 2.0%

KEELFLEX

Narrow stability window; fast when perfectly balanced, punishing when not.

Boats 2
Share 1.0%
Continue

Go deeper.

Fleet Overview

The global offshore racing landscape and how France's 772-boat fleet fits within it.

Platform Scale

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Historical weather meets hull physics — every fleet, every leg.

See France Racing — Mediterranean Championship See Fleet Overview