Ireland

272 Irish boats with home water at the Fastnet — a J/Boats-led Atlantic fleet drawn for the western approaches.

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 Irish boat clusters, before the results arrive.
272
boats
13
events
National fleet view · as of 2026-06-21

ORC Authority: ORC Ireland

ORC Ireland governs a fleet steeped in the world's oldest sailing heritage. 272 boats carry a FleetEdge identity under the Irish flag, racing across the Irish Sea, Cork Harbour, Dublin Bay, and the western approaches. The Royal Cork Yacht Club, founded in 1720, is the oldest yacht club in the world, and Irish offshore racing centers on the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association (ISORA) cross-Irish-Sea circuit, Cork Week, Dublin Bay club racing, and Ireland's home-water access to the Rolex Fastnet — the Fastnet Rock sits off Ireland's southwest coast, turning the long Cowes-to-Cherbourg offshore into a back-garden run for Irish campaigns and putting the western approaches' chop and Atlantic weather at the door of every Irish program.

Ireland is a J/Boats-anchored Atlantic fleet with a Fastnet home-water advantage. J/Boats — the Rod Johnstone (Johnstone R) drawing board — is the single largest design office in the national fleet at 17.4%, the J-109, the J-80 one-design, and the wider J family carrying more than one in six Irish hulls. The J-109 in particular is the Irish offshore default and the ISORA cross-Irish-Sea backbone, while the J-80 sharpens Irish club and harbor racing as a tight one-design class. Irish teams push into the international calendar through the Rolex Fastnet — with the Fastnet Rock as Irish home water — the Cowes Offshore Series, and the wider IRC offshore circuit.

The archetype distribution opens with GRAVITYRUN and STORMLINE co-leading at 14.7% each — a heavy-mode momentum boat with strong downwind power in sustained breeze alongside a rough-water specialist shaped for steep, short seas — with IRONWIND 12.1% completing the top three, the stiff, stable-drive platform that holds a predictable load through chop. The GRAVITYRUN-STORMLINE-IRONWIND top three carries 41.5% of the fleet and reads as a heavy-weather, sea-state answer to the western approaches' Atlantic chop and the tidal gates of the Irish Sea — a fleet built to power through pressure rather than ghost in light air. All 11 archetypes are populated. The forward path runs the ISORA cross-Irish-Sea circuit, Cork Week, the Round Ireland Race 704 nm loop, and the home-water Rolex Fastnet around the Fastnet Rock.

At a glance

Ireland — structural profile.

Scope
272 boats
119 ORC-rated · 153 mapped-IRC
Top 3 archetypes
  1. STORMLINE — 40 boats (14.7%)
  2. GRAVITYRUN — 40 boats (14.7%)
  3. IRONWIND — 33 boats (12.1%)
Eleven canonical performance archetypes cluster the fleet by dimensional signature. See the full map →
Top designer cluster
Johnstone R
47 boats (17.3%) — 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
Fleet DNA

How the Irish boats are built.

272 boats in the fleet. 119 ORC-rated and 153 mapped IRC entries attributed across 11 archetypes — GRAVITYRUN and STORMLINE co-leading at 14.7% each with IRONWIND 12.1% completing a top three that carries 41.5% of the distribution. Here's how the fleet clusters, and what the collective signature reveals about how Ireland races.

The Irish ORC Fleet Signature

Ireland's fleet reads as a J/Boats-anchored Atlantic collective with a heavy-weather, sea-state top of the cohort. GRAVITYRUN and STORMLINE co-lead at 14.7% each (40 boats apiece) — a heavy-mode momentum boat with strong downwind power in sustained breeze, paired with a rough-water specialist shaped for steep, short seas. IRONWIND rounds the top three at 12.1% (33 boats), the stiff, stable-drive platform that holds a predictable load through chop. All eleven archetypes are populated — a full-spectrum distribution drawn from a fleet whose largest single drawing board is J/Boats (Johnstone R), and whose home water is the western approaches and the Fastnet Rock.

  • GRAVITYRUN 14.7% · 40 boats
  • STORMLINE 14.7% · 40 boats
  • IRONWIND 12.1% · 33 boats

Dimension emphasis: Hull Efficiency · Crew Intelligence · Comparative Time

A five-boat Irish contingent raced the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race — Ireland's home-water offshore around the Fastnet Rock. See the selected race result.

Complete data Latest published view

GRAVITYRUN

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 40
Share 14.7%
  • Swan 47
  • C&C 41
  • Sigma 38

STORMLINE

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

moderate upwind · strong reaching · moderate downwind

Boats 40
Share 14.7%
  • J/111
  • J/121
  • Fast 40+

IRONWIND

Stiff, stable-drive platform with predictable load behavior.

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 33
Share 12.1%
  • J/122
  • XP-44
  • Swan 45

DEEPFRAME

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 31
Share 11.4%
  • Swan 60
  • Nautor custom
  • ClubSwan 50

KEELFLEX

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 30
Share 11.0%
  • First 30
  • X-35
  • J/35

HEADFORCE

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

strong upwind · weak reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 29
Share 10.7%
  • First 34.7
  • Grand Soleil 37
  • Sun Fast 3300

STEELCORE

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

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 27
Share 9.9%
  • First 40
  • Bavaria C42
  • Hanse 388

AEROMAX

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

strong upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 22
Share 8.1%
  • TP52
  • GP42
  • Melges IC37

GLIDEFORM

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

weak upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 13
Share 4.8%
  • J/109
  • Dehler 38
  • Italia 11

STEELFORM

Heavy-displacement hull with strong directional stability.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 5
Share 1.8%
  • J/70
  • Farr 280
  • SB20

AEROBLADE

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

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 2
Share 0.7%
  • Class 40
  • IMOCA derivatives
  • Pogo 30
Fleet Stories

The Irish fleet signature.

J/Boats anchors the Irish fleet

J/Boats — the Rod Johnstone (Johnstone R) drawing board — carries 47 of the 272 IRL-flagged boats, 17.4%, the single largest design voice in the national fleet. The J/Boats footprint runs through the J-109, the J-80 one-design, and the wider J family on Irish entry lists; the J-109 in particular has been the Irish offshore default and the ISORA cross-Irish-Sea backbone for two decades. A fleet led by one drawing board at better than one in six hulls reflects Ireland's bias toward proven, balanced racer-cruisers built for the western approaches' mix of chop, tide, and Atlantic pressure.

The J-109 backbone

The J-109 is the single most-common class in the Irish fleet at 17 boats, 6.3% of all IRL hulls, just ahead of the First 36.7 (16) and the First 34.7 and J-80 one-design (12 each). The J-109 is the J/Boats short-handed offshore default and the ISORA cross-Irish-Sea backbone — a 35-foot racer-cruiser that holds value as both a club platform and an offshore campaign boat. Its presence at the top of the class table is the production-fleet expression of the same J/Boats lean the designer signature shows: Ireland races a proven, mid-size offshore class rather than a spread of one-off custom hulls.

Popular Classes

The boats that define Irish racing.

J-109 (17)

The J/Boats short-handed offshore default — the ISORA cross-Irish-Sea backbone of the Irish fleet.

First 36.7 (16)

Beneteau's mid-size Farr-designed IRC racer-cruiser of the 2000s — a durable club-and-coastal workhorse.

First 34.7 (12)

Beneteau's compact Farr-drawn racer-cruiser — a forgiving, well-priced IRC and ORC platform.

J-80 OD (12)

The J/Boats one-design sportboat — a tight, level class that sharpens Irish club and harbor racing.

Fortuna 9 (9)

A classic offshore racer.

Selected Race Result

Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 — Irish contingent.

5 of 272 fleet boats competed. A single offshore race of roughly 695 nautical miles from Cowes around the Fastnet Rock to Cherbourg, scored overall. July 2025.

Headlines

What led the Irish 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. NIEULARGO · −21.1 sec/nm
2. AURELIA · −7.3 sec/nm
3. PRIME SUSPECT · +20.6 sec/nm
Cohort 4 boats

Upwind VMG (12 kt)

1. AURELIA · 5.52 kt
2. PRIME SUSPECT · 5.37 kt
3. NIEULARGO · 5.18 kt
Cohort 4 boats

Crew Residual

1. NIEULARGO · −19.1 sec/nm
2. AURELIA · −7.2 sec/nm
3. PRIME SUSPECT · +20.1 sec/nm
Cohort 4 boats

Comparative Time and Crew Residual are FleetEdge corrected-time analytics computed on the four Irish boats at the Fastnet with comparison records; Upwind VMG is the certificate-derived beat VMG at 12 kt across the same four entries. A fifth Irish boat, ZERO II, finished but carries no comparative read. Source: published Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 standings · as of 2026-06-21.

Stories

What the Irish entries showed.

Performance Verdict

NIEULARGO AEROMAX beat its rating and its crew baseline at the Rock.

The Cork-based Grand Soleil 40 NIEULARGO AEROMAX led the five-boat Irish contingent on FleetEdge's corrected-time read, beating its ORC allowance by 21.1 sec/nm — the widest margin of the Irish entries — and beating its archetype-expected crew pace by 19.1 sec/nm. That pairing matters: the comparative-time edge says the boat finished well ahead of what its rating expected, and the crew-residual edge says the result was not just the platform — the crew out-executed the archetype baseline, outperforming both reference lanes at once. A 76th-of-208 finish in IRC Overall is mid-fleet at a 400-plus-boat international race, but on the corrected-time and execution lenses NIEULARGO was the strongest Irish read of the running.

  • Comparative Time: −21.1 sec/nm · best of the Irish cohort
  • Crew Residual: −19.1 sec/nm · crew beat the archetype baseline
Boat-led · single-event Corrected time
Nationality / Class Cluster

The J/Boats lineage that races the Fastnet from its own back garden.

The Fastnet Rock sits off Ireland's southwest coast, which makes the Rolex Fastnet Race the rare 695 nm offshore that turns on Irish home water — and the J/Boats drawing board that anchors 17.4% of the national fleet is the lineage that sails it. The J-109 is the Irish offshore default and the ISORA cross-Irish-Sea backbone; the wider J family carries the club-and-coastal layer of the five-boat contingent that started in 2025 — including the J-122 AURELIA AEROMAX, second of the Irish boats on corrected time. This is a small national slice at a 400-plus-boat international race, not an Irish command of the result — but it is the home-water entry of a fleet whose largest single design office was drawn for exactly this kind of pressure-on, tide-gated Atlantic water.

  • J/Boats (Johnstone R): 17.4% · largest Irish drawing board
  • Region: Fastnet Rock · Irish home water on the western approaches
Structural · single-event Designer mix
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 five-boat Irish 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 272-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.

ORC World Fleet

How Ireland's 272-boat fleet sits inside the global ORC fleet and the international offshore landscape.

Fastnet

The Rolex Fastnet Race — Ireland's home-water offshore around the Fastnet Rock.

Cowes Offshore

The Cowes-anchored offshore series Irish teams race across the Solent and English Channel.

United Kingdom

Geographic peer fleet — the Solent, the English Channel, and the IRC offshore axis Irish teams race alongside.

Fleet Archetypes

The 11 canonical performance archetypes — GRAVITYRUN, STORMLINE, IRONWIND, and the full set of design groups that clusters Ireland's fleet.

Fleet Overview

The global offshore racing landscape and how Ireland's fleet fits within it.

Join the world's offshore racing teams.

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

See Ireland Racing — Fastnet See Fleet Overview