Hong Kong

South China Sea. The RHKYC tradition since 1849 — an AEROMAX-led fleet with a leading Farr-designed share, racing from Victoria Harbor to Sydney Hobart.

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 Hong Kong boat clusters, before the results arrive.
Kinship

AEROMAX, AEROBLADE, GLIDEFORM — three leading archetypes carry 56% of the Hong Kong fleet.

Hong Kong's 55 ORC-rated boats carry a three-archetype lead: AEROMAX at 21.8%, AEROBLADE at 20.0%, and GLIDEFORM at 14.5%, together accounting for 56.3% of the fleet — a structural fingerprint that pairs power-efficient upwind drive with light, low-drag speed across the South China Sea's full monsoon-to-shoulder-season pressure range, with Farr Designs anchoring the largest designer share at 20.0%.

55
boats
10
archetypes
8
intl events
20.0%
Farr-designed share
National fleet view · as of 2026-06-21

ORC Authority: RHKYC · HKSF

The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club has governed competitive sailing in these waters since 1849 — the oldest yacht club in Asia, and the organizing authority behind the Rolex China Sea Race (Hong Kong to Subic Bay, roughly 560 nautical miles across the South China Sea), the Around the Island Race, and the RHKYC Autumn Regatta series. Alongside HKSF-sanctioned coastal racing, the RHKYC produces crews experienced in tropical offshore conditions: monsoon winds, heavy seas, and the challenging currents of the Luzon Strait.

The Hong Kong fleet carries a three-archetype lead: AEROMAX at 21.8%, AEROBLADE at 20.0%, and GLIDEFORM at 14.5%, together carrying 56.3% of the 55-boat fleet. AEROMAX is the power-efficiency hybrid with strong upwind drive and moderate displacement — the structural preference of a fleet whose RHKYC domestic circuit rewards crews who can convert breeze into upwind gauge through South China Sea monsoon pressure shifts. AEROBLADE is the light, agile platform optimized for quick acceleration and flat-water speed — the boat that pays off in the shifty harbor and coastal courses and the lighter shoulder-season patches. GLIDEFORM is the low-drag hull with efficient upwind flow and moderate displacement — the steady glider that holds pace across both the summer southwest monsoon's lighter air and the winter northeast monsoon's steady offshore breeze. The three together read the South China Sea's full pressure range rather than any single condition band, with GRAVITYRUN and DEEPFRAME (each 9.1%) adding heavy-mode and deep-hull range behind them. Farr Designs anchors the largest designer share at 20.0% (11 boats), with the Cape 31 one-design cluster (5 boats) and the Beneteau First 36.7 line (4 boats) carrying the largest single-class concentrations.

The 2026 Hong Kong forward path runs the RHKYC domestic circuit — Around the Island Race, the Autumn Regatta series, South Coast offshore — alongside the international campaigns the fleet has proven across Fastnet, Sydney Hobart, and the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup. The Rolex China Sea Race is biennial; 2026's calendar for the fleet's grand-prix layer depends on the specific edition year, with RHKYC domestic racing carrying the macro fleet through the season regardless.

At a glance

Hong Kong — structural profile.

Scope
55 boats
21 ORC-rated · 34 mapped-IRC
Top 3 archetypes
  1. AEROMAX — 12 boats (21.8%)
  2. AEROBLADE — 11 boats (20.0%)
  3. GLIDEFORM — 8 boats (14.5%)
Eleven canonical performance archetypes cluster the fleet by dimensional signature. See the full map →
Top designer cluster
Farr Yacht Design
11 boats (20.0%) — 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 Hong Kong fleet.

55 ORC-rated boats classified across 10 archetypes. Here's how they cluster, and what the collective signature reveals about South China Sea offshore and international destination racing.

The Hong Kong ORC Fleet Signature

Hong Kong's fleet is an AEROMAX-led South China Sea collective with a leading share of Farr-designed boats, racing from Victoria Harbor to Subic Bay. AEROMAX leads at 21.8% (12 boats) — power-efficiency hybrids with strong upwind drive and moderate displacement, the structural preference of a fleet whose RHKYC domestic circuit rewards crews who convert breeze into upwind gauge through monsoon pressure shifts. AEROBLADE follows at 20.0% (11 boats), light, agile platforms optimized for quick acceleration and flat-water speed — the boats that pay off in the shifty harbor and coastal courses and the lighter shoulder-season patches. GLIDEFORM holds 14.5% (8 boats) — low-drag hulls with efficient upwind flow and moderate displacement, the steady gliders across the monsoon shoulder seasons. The Farr-designed share is the largest single designer block at 20.0% (11 boats), running through the Beneteau First production line — the First 36.7 cluster (4 boats) is the largest Beneteau class block in the fleet. The Cape 31 one-design (5 boats) is the largest single-class cluster in the country. Ten of eleven archetypes are populated.

  • AEROMAX 21.8% · 12 boats
  • AEROBLADE 20.0% · 11 boats
  • GLIDEFORM 14.5% · 8 boats

Dimension emphasis: Hull Efficiency · Comparative Time

Farr Designs anchors the largest designer share at 20.0% (11 boats) — a single-designer concentration that runs through the Beneteau First production line and the Hong Kong backbone. AEROMAX + AEROBLADE + GLIDEFORM together hold 56.3% of the 55-boat fleet across three leading archetypes — a three-archetype lead that reads the South China Sea's full pressure range without picking a single condition band, and runs RHKYC domestic first in 2026 (Around the Island Race, the Autumn Regatta series, South Coast offshore) with the Fastnet, Sydney Hobart, and Mediterranean maxi destination calendar behind.

Complete data Latest published view

AEROMAX

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

strong upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 12
Share 21.8%
  • TP52
  • GP42
  • Melges IC37

AEROBLADE

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

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 11
Share 20.0%
  • Class 40
  • IMOCA derivatives
  • Pogo 30

GLIDEFORM

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

weak upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 8
Share 14.5%
  • 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 5
Share 9.1%
  • Swan 60
  • Nautor custom
  • ClubSwan 50

GRAVITYRUN

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 5
Share 9.1%
  • Swan 47
  • C&C 41
  • Sigma 38

STEELFORM

Heavy-displacement hull with strong directional stability.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 4
Share 7.3%
  • J/70
  • Farr 280
  • SB20

STORMLINE

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

moderate upwind · strong reaching · moderate downwind

Boats 4
Share 7.3%
  • J/111
  • J/121
  • Fast 40+

KEELFLEX

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 3
Share 5.5%
  • First 30
  • X-35
  • J/35

IRONWIND

Stiff, stable-drive platform with predictable load behavior.

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 2
Share 3.6%
  • J/122
  • XP-44
  • Swan 45

STEELCORE

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

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 1
Share 1.8%
  • First 40
  • Bavaria C42
  • Hanse 388
What we saw

A 55-boat fleet, three leading archetypes, an international footprint one boat wide.

Hong Kong's 55-boat fleet (21 ORC-rated and 34 mapped IRC entries) carries AEROBLADE at 23.6%, GRAVITYRUN at 18.2%, and IRONWIND at 18.2% — a three-archetype 60.0% concentration that reads the South China Sea's full pressure range, anchored by Farr Designs at 20.0%, the largest designer share. The international race footprint across eight events — Rolex Fastnet 2025, Rolex Sydney Hobart 2025, Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2024, Block Island Race Week XXXI, GL52 Ugotta Regatta 2025, Safe Harbor Race Weekend 2025, AYC Frostbite Series 2025/2026, and Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series St Petersburg 2026 — is a single entry at every venue. No event reaches the 5-boat intersection threshold, and no Hong Kong boat holds a class win in the observed window. Three insights from the structural signature and the global dispersion pattern.

Pre-race window · Archetype-Conditions

Three leading archetypes meet the South China Sea's full pressure range.

The 2026 Hong Kong season runs the RHKYC domestic circuit — Around the Island Race, the Autumn Regatta series, the South Coast offshore calendar — with international destination campaigns continuing to carry Hong Kong boats to Rolex Fastnet, Rolex Sydney Hobart, and the Mediterranean maxi circuit. South China Sea monsoon conditions deliver variable pressure across the year: winter northeast monsoon bringing steady offshore breeze, summer southwest monsoon bringing lighter variable patches, and the transition seasons bringing the tactical reading that separates local crews from visitors. The three-archetype 60.0% concentration is the structural signature of a fleet that races this full pressure range rather than optimizing for a single condition band — AEROBLADE 23.6% holds trim through monsoon pressure shifts, GRAVITYRUN 18.2% carries heavy-mode downwind power into the China Sea Race window, and IRONWIND 18.2% holds the line with predictable load behavior across the shoulder seasons. Pre-race speculation — actual conditions and crew execution will arbitrate.

  • Three-archetype concentration: 60.0% · AEROBLADE 23.6% + GRAVITYRUN 18.2% + IRONWIND 18.2%
  • Hong Kong fleet: 55 boats · 21 ORC-rated and 34 mapped IRC entries
Pre-race context Weather & design profile (historical)
Nationality/Class/Designer Cluster

Farr Designs leads the designer board, the Mills-designed Cape 31 cluster behind — the Hong Kong drawing-board signature.

Farr Designs anchors the Hong Kong fleet with the largest designer share at 20.0% (11 boats), and the Mills-designed Cape 31 one-design cluster (5 boats, 9.1%) is the most visible single-design block behind — the concentration that sits on top of the three-archetype 60.0% structural fingerprint. The Farr-designed share runs through the Beneteau First production line — the First 36.7 cluster (4 boats) is the largest Beneteau class block in the country — alongside the offshore racer lines that have moved into the RHKYC inventory across the past decade. The remaining designer board is a long tail (Judel-Vrolijk, X-Yachts in-house, Briand, Ker, Johnstone, Frers) where no single line crosses the supportive band. When the Hong Kong fleet writes its racing rhythm, it does so on Farr hulls built in Beneteau molds, with the Mills-Cape 31 line as the most visible single-design block behind.

  • Farr-designed share: 20.0% · 11 boats · largest designer share
  • Cape 31 one-design cluster: 5 boats · 9.1% · Mills design
Complete data Designer & class mix
Fleet vs Race Composition Shift

55 boats, 8 events, every international entry a singleton.

Hong Kong's 8-event international footprint spans Rolex Fastnet, Rolex Sydney Hobart, Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Block Island Race Week, GL52 Ugotta Regatta, Safe Harbor Race Weekend, AYC Frostbite Series, and Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series St Petersburg — and every one of those entries is a single Hong Kong boat. Unlike the concentrated national fleets that travel as units (Belgium's 3-boat KEELFLEX cluster at Palma, Norway's 30-boat DH Worlds squadron), Hong Kong's international footprint is structurally dispersed: one boat at Fastnet, one at Sydney Hobart, one at Porto Cervo, one at Block Island. The macro fleet's three-archetype AEROBLADE + GRAVITYRUN + IRONWIND character (a 60.0% concentration, with the largest designer share Farr-designed) carries across the 55-boat RHKYC domestic circuit, and the international tier splits the fleet's international ambition across eight unrelated venues rather than consolidating at one. Hong Kong's race signature is international dispersion over depth, a Pacific fleet with a global reach one boat wide.

  • International events: 8 · max per event 1 boat
  • Class wins observed: 0 · dispersion over concentration
Complete data FleetEdge Event footprint
Continue

Go deeper.

Fleet Overview

The global offshore racing landscape and how Hong Kong's three-archetype 56.3% AEROMAX + AEROBLADE + GLIDEFORM 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 Hong Kong Racing — ORC World Fleet See Fleet Overview