Germany

539 German boats across 30 international events. Engineering precision meets offshore racing — AEROMAX leads the fleet, with AEROBLADE and GLIDEFORM close behind.

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 German boat clusters, before the results arrive.
539
boats
30
events
National fleet view · as of 2026-07-10

National fleet view · 539 boats · as of 2026-07-10

At a glance

Germany — structural profile.

Scope
539 boats
526 ORC-rated · 13 mapped-IRC
Top 3 archetypes
  1. AEROMAX — 102 boats (18.9%)
  2. AEROBLADE — 75 boats (13.9%)
  3. GLIDEFORM — 64 boats (11.9%)
Eleven canonical performance archetypes cluster the fleet by dimensional signature. See the full map →
Top designer cluster
Jeppesen-Nielsen
82 boats (15.2%) — 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 2026-07-10
Fleet DNA

How the German boats are built.

539 boats in the fleet. 526 ORC-rated and 13 mapped IRC entries attributed across 11 archetypes — here's how they cluster, and what the collective signature reveals about how Germany races.

The German ORC Fleet Signature

Germany's fleet is an engineering-precision collective led by upwind-capable power platforms. AEROMAX leads at 18.9% (102 boats) — the power-efficiency hybrid with strong upwind drive and moderate displacement — with AEROBLADE next at 13.9% (75 boats), the light, agile platform that rewards trim precision and flat-water speed. GLIDEFORM rounds out the top three at 11.9% (64 boats), the low-drag hull that turns downwind pressure into smooth, efficient acceleration. No single archetype dominates the long tail: the spread reflects a fleet that races from inshore Kiel courses to Baltic and North Sea offshore legs, and a German design tradition that favors engineering-grounded platforms over any one envelope.

  • AEROMAX 18.9% · 102 boats
  • AEROBLADE 13.9% · 75 boats
  • GLIDEFORM 11.9% · 64 boats

Dimension emphasis: Hull Efficiency · Platform Stability

At the 2024 Rolex Swan Cup, a four-boat German contingent took two class trophies — Isabella in Class 3SS_C and KATIMA in Class 6C_C. See the selected race result.

Complete data Latest published view

AEROMAX

Upwind-power specialist with the fleet's strongest rig-driven VMG.

strong upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 102
Share 18.9%
  • First 40.7
  • First 40
  • Grand Soleil 40

AEROBLADE

High-efficiency rig with sharp heel sensitivity and rapid trim response.

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 75
Share 13.9%
  • TP-52
  • Farr 40
  • XP-44

DEEPFRAME

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 62
Share 11.5%
  • J-109
  • First 36
  • J-120

GLIDEFORM

Low-drag hull delivering smooth, efficient downwind acceleration.

weak upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 64
Share 11.9%
  • J-105
  • J-99
  • Farr 30

GRAVITYRUN

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 63
Share 11.7%
  • First 36.7
  • First 34.7
  • X-332

STORMLINE

High-power, heel-sensitive platform with explosive potential when sailed flat.

moderate upwind · strong reaching · moderate downwind

Boats 36
Share 6.7%
  • Comfortina 32
  • Fenix
  • Aphrodite 101

IRONWIND

Stiff, stable-drive platform with predictable load behavior.

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 30
Share 5.6%
  • J-80 OD
  • J-24
  • Melges 24 OD

STEELCORE

Central, stiff rigid-platform hull — stability-positive, hull-form-dominant, low heel-sensitivity.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 35
Share 6.5%
  • Sunfast 37
  • Dufour 40
  • Grand Soleil 37 BC

STEELFORM

Compact-rig, rigid platform delivering consistent, low-variance results.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 28
Share 5.2%
  • Bavaria CR 46
  • Dufour 41 Performance
  • Hanse 400 E

KEELFLEX

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 26
Share 4.8%
  • First 31.7
  • Express
  • First 31.7 LR

HEADFORCE

Upwind-biased pressure boat driving compact rigs through higher-drag hull forms.

strong upwind · weak reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 18
Share 3.3%
  • Fortuna 9
  • Miura
  • Elan 333

Event cohort view · 4 boats · as of 2026-07-10

Selected Race Result

Rolex Swan Cup 2024 — German contingent.

4 of 539 fleet boats competed. 24 races — a constructed-course windward-leeward series at Porto Cervo, scored PCS. September 2024.

Headlines

Where the German entries led.

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. ELAN · −145.1 sec/nm
2. ISABELLA · −128.1 sec/nm
3. KATIMA · −37.7 sec/nm
Cohort 4 boats

Crew Residual

1. ISABELLA · −233.6 sec/nm
2. ELAN · −225.2 sec/nm
3. FIXATION · −89.0 sec/nm
Cohort 4 boats

Sail Drive

1. KATIMA · 40
2. FIXATION · 33
3. ELAN · 25
Cohort 4 boats
Stories

What the result tells us.

Championship Citation

KATIMA — Swan Cup Champion, Class 6C_C.

KATIMA AEROBLADE (GER 6593, Swan 45, German Frers) won Class 6C_C at the 2024 Rolex Swan Cup on just 3 points, atop a class standings sheet that runs 14 places deep. The Frers-drawn Swan 45 also led the four-boat German group on Sail Drive Index at 40 and posted a crew residual of −64.7 sec/nm — execution ahead of its archetype-expected pace, though the narrowest such margin of the four German entries. The same class delivered a second German podium: FIXATION AEROMAX (Swan 46) took 3rd on 10 points. Two German boats in the top three of 6C_C — the deepest class the contingent entered.

  • 1st · Class 6C_C, 3 points · standings 14 deep
  • Sail Drive Index: 40 · top of the GER entries
Complete data Rolex Swan Cup 2024
Championship Citation

ISABELLA — Swan Cup Champion, Class 3SS_C.

ISABELLA STORMLINE (GER-8510, Swan 36, Sparkman & Stephens) won Class 3SS_C at the 2024 Rolex Swan Cup on 7 points. The S&S-drawn Swan 36 backed the title with the second-best Comparative Time delta of the German contingent — −128.1 sec/nm against its ORC median allowance — sailing the vintage Sparkman & Stephens class against sister designs of its own era. Two German class titles from a four-boat contingent — a top-heavy result, not a fleet-wide German command of the regatta.

  • 1st · Class 3SS_C, 7 points
  • Comparative Time: −128.1 sec/nm · 2nd of the GER entries
Complete data Rolex Swan Cup 2024
Performance Verdict

ELAN: fastest against the rating sheet, no silverware to show.

ELAN AEROMAX (Swan 48, Sparkman & Stephens) posted the best Comparative Time delta of the German contingent — −145.1 sec/nm against its ORC median allowance, 17 sec/nm clear of the class-winning Isabella. The crew residual backs the pace: at −225.2 sec/nm, ELAN's crew sailed well ahead of the archetype-expected baseline — this was execution as much as platform. Yet the fastest German boat against allowance at Porto Cervo was not one of the two that left with class silverware — speed against the rating sheet and a winning scoreline are different ledgers.

  • Comparative Time: −145.1 sec/nm · best of the GER entries
  • Crew residual: −225.2 sec/nm · crew ahead of the archetype baseline
Partial data · 2 scored comparisons Rolex Swan Cup 2024
Nationality / Class Cluster

An all-Nautor German contingent at the Nautor regatta.

All four German boats at the Rolex Swan Cup were Swans — Isabella (Swan 36), KATIMA (Swan 45), ELAN (Swan 48), and FIXATION (Swan 46). The Swan Cup is Nautor's own owners' regatta at Porto Cervo, so a German contingent built entirely of Swans is the natural shape of who shows up. The four boats split across three of FleetEdge's archetypes — two AEROMAX (ELAN, FIXATION), one AEROBLADE (KATIMA), one STORMLINE (Isabella) — a reminder that within a single builder's vintage range the hull-form signatures still diverge. This is a four-boat slice at one regatta, not a German pattern that generalizes beyond Porto Cervo.

  • Contingent: 4 Swans · Swan 36 / 45 / 46 / 48
  • Archetype split: 2 AEROMAX, 1 AEROBLADE, 1 STORMLINE
Structural · single-event FleetEdge Class cluster
Race Archetypes

28 boats classified in the Rolex Swan Cup 2024.

The Swan Cup field's structural makeup — how the 28-boat race group clusters across the FleetEdge archetypes, and where the four-boat German contingent sits within it. AEROMAX dominates the event lens, with AEROBLADE the only other multi-boat archetype; the German entries split two AEROMAX, one AEROBLADE, one STORMLINE. This is the event lens, distinct from the 539-boat national Fleet DNA.

Archetypes reflect the current fleet view — no published view near this event yet.

AEROMAX

Upwind-power specialist with the fleet's strongest rig-driven VMG.

Boats 19
Share 67.9%

AEROBLADE

High-efficiency rig with sharp heel sensitivity and rapid trim response.

Boats 6
Share 21.4%

DEEPFRAME

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

Boats 1
Share 3.6%

STEELFORM

Compact-rig, rigid platform delivering consistent, low-variance results.

Boats 1
Share 3.6%

STORMLINE

High-power, heel-sensitive platform with explosive potential when sailed flat.

Boats 1
Share 3.6%

Classified fleet view · 539 of 539 classified · as of 2026-07-10

Fleet Stories

The German fleet signature.

AEROMAX leads the German fleet

AEROMAX accounts for 102 of the 539 GER-flagged boats — 18.9%, the single largest archetype in the national fleet by a clear margin. AEROMAX is the power-efficiency hybrid with strong upwind drive and moderate displacement; a fleet led by it reflects German racing's appetite for boats that hold pace upwind on the protected inshore and coastal water of the Baltic and the Bay of Kiel. AEROBLADE follows at 13.9% (75 boats) and GLIDEFORM — the low-drag hull — at 11.9% (64), so the lead is genuine but the tail stays broad: a fleet with depth across platforms, not a single-type monoculture.

Jeppesen-Nielsen anchors the German fleet

Jeppesen-Nielsen — the X-Yachts design office — carries the largest single design share in the German fleet at 15.2% (82 boats), with the home-market German partnership Judel-Vrolijk and Farr Design behind it. The X-Yachts signature runs through the X-332 — Germany's most-common class — and its larger siblings on German entry lists. Even with one office in front, the German ledger keeps its engineering-grounded breadth rather than concentration — the rest of the fleet spreads across the full international design catalog.

Popular Classes

The boats that define German racing.

X-332 (16)

X-Yachts' compact Jeppesen-Nielsen keelboat — a Nordic cruiser-racer classic.

First 36.7 (9)

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

J-99 (7)

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

XP-44 (7)

A racer-cruiser from X-Yachts.

First 36 (6)

A racer-cruiser from Beneteau.

Continue

Go deeper.

Fleet Overview

The global offshore racing landscape and how Germany's AEROMAX-led 539-boat fleet fits within it.

Platform Scale

How FleetEdge measures racing across geographies and fleet types — 11 archetypes, every fleet's hidden shape.

Join the world's offshore racing teams.

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

See Germany Racing — Baltic Offshore See Fleet Overview