Netherlands

457 Dutch boats across 47 events, led by LEANRUN at 18.8% — large-scale, upright-sailing hulls about a point clear of the compact-scale LEANFORCE, with AEROFORCE third, North Sea-bred breadth across the international circuit.

Kinship

Every fleet has a fingerprint.

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

 Hidden Shape

The hidden shape of the fleet.
The kinds of boat that keep appearing when every hull is measured the same way.

How every Dutch boat clusters, before the results arrive.
Kinship

A broadly-campaigning fleet with a large-scale, upright-sailing core.

The Netherlands' fleet races across the North Sea, Baltic, Mediterranean championship circuits, and the classic UK and Atlantic offshore events under Watersportverbond governance — a broadly-campaigning fleet led by the large-scale, upright-sailing LEANRUN archetype at the top, with the 2026 ORC Double-Handed World Championship raced on home North Sea waters in May.

457
boats
47
events
402
races
Domestic competitive fleet · as of 2026-08-20

ORC Authority: Watersportverbond

The Watersportverbond governs a fleet that campaigns broadly rather than staying local. Dutch boats race the North Sea domestically, head south for Mediterranean championships, and remain regulars at the Rolex Fastnet Race, the RORC offshore circuit, and the Baltic. The Netherlands fields J/Boats, X-Yachts, Dehler, and Beneteau production lines alongside a long tail of one-off builds — and the way those platforms cluster has a clear leader: LEANRUN, the large-scale shape that sails upright, carries close to a fifth of the fleet, about a point ahead of the compact-scale LEANFORCE.

LEANRUN leads the Dutch archetype distribution. LEANRUN heads the fleet at 18.8% (86 boats) — large-scale hulls that sail upright, downwind-neutral in banked race evidence — with LEANFORCE at 17.7% (81 boats) about a point behind, the compact-scale shape that holds the same downwind-neutral standing in the same evidence, and AEROFORCE at 14.2% (65 boats) third, the three at the top carrying just over half the fleet between them. Johnstone R is the most-common voice on the drawing-board ledger at 11.4% (52 boats, still below the 15% dominance threshold), with Judel-Vrolijk and the Jeppesen-Nielsen X-Yachts boards following — a J/Boats production presence sharing the leaderboard with the German offshore design partnership that has shaped a generation of Dutch grand-prix entries.

The world championship came home in May. Fifteen Watersportverbond-registered boats raced the ORC Double-Handed World Championship on North Sea waters (May 21–22, 2026) — the largest Dutch race group at any world championship in the archive, and the majority of the 26 boats with scored observations at the event. Two offshore tests per class — a short course of roughly 32–40 nautical miles and a long course of roughly 193–230 — scored on time-on-time with ECMWF weather routing.

National fleet view · 457 boats · as of 2026-08-20

At a glance

Netherlands — structural profile.

Scope
457 boats
444 ORC-rated · 13 mapped-IRC
Top 3 archetypes
  1. LEANRUN — 86 boats (18.8%)
  2. LEANFORCE — 81 boats (17.7%)
  3. AEROFORCE — 65 boats (14.2%)
Eight canonical performance archetypes cluster the fleet by dimensional signature. See the full map →
Top designer cluster
Johnstone R
52 boats (11.4%) — 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 2026-08-20
Hidden Shape

The shape of the Dutch fleet.

457 Dutch boats across 8 archetypes — led by LEANRUN at 18.8%, with LEANFORCE at 17.7% and AEROFORCE at 14.2% behind. Here's how they cluster, and what the collective signature reveals about how the Netherlands races.

The Dutch Fleet Signature

The Netherlands' fleet leads with the large-scale, upright-sailing LEANRUN shape, with the compact-scale LEANFORCE close behind it. LEANRUN leads at 18.8% (86 boats) — large-scale hulls that sail upright and sit downwind-neutral in banked race evidence, a shape that keeps pace with the fleet norm on the running legs of North Sea and offshore courses. LEANFORCE sits about a point behind at 17.7% (81 boats) — compact-scale hulls that match that downwind-neutral showing in the same banked evidence — and AEROFORCE follows at 14.2% (65 boats), the large-scale, level-sailing platform on a neutral stability reserve. The three lead archetypes carry just over half the fleet between them, and the supporting field stays broad — SPARKFLEX, HEFTLINE, AEROCORE, and KEELRUN all hold ground behind them — the signature of a fleet that buys across production one-designs and one-off builds, and campaigns from North Sea club racing through Mediterranean and Atlantic offshore circuits.

  • LEANRUN 18.8% · 86 boats
  • LEANFORCE 17.7% · 81 boats
  • AEROFORCE 14.2% · 65 boats

Dimension emphasis: Sail Performance · Condition & Tactical

In May 2026, 15 Dutch boats raced the ORC Double-Handed World Championship on home North Sea waters, where Team Heiner 4 (NED 7472, J-109) ran closest to its weather-routed allowance across both scored offshore courses — see what we saw →.

Complete data Latest published view

AEROSTREAM

Towering scale · level posture · stiff reserve — measured downwind advantage in banked race evidence.

strong upwind · weak reaching · strong downwind

Boats 28
Share 6.1%
  • TP-52
  • XP-44
  • Farr 40

SPARKFLEX

Minimal scale · upright posture · tender reserve — downwind-constrained in banked race evidence.

weak upwind · moderate reaching · weak downwind

Boats 56
Share 12.3%
  • J-80 OD
  • J-24
  • J-70 ONE DESIGN

LEANRUN

Large scale · upright posture — downwind-neutral in banked race evidence.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 86
Share 18.8%
  • First 36.7
  • J-109
  • First 35

KEELRUN

Compact scale · upright posture · neutral reserve — reaching-neutral in banked race evidence.

moderate upwind · strong reaching · moderate downwind

Boats 42
Share 9.2%
  • First 31.7
  • J-105
  • Sunfast 3200

HEFTLINE

Compact scale · level posture · stiff reserve — reaching-neutral in banked race evidence.

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · moderate downwind

Boats 50
Share 10.9%
  • J-111
  • Farr 30
  • Cape 31

AEROFORCE

Large scale · level posture · neutral reserve — reaching-constrained in banked race evidence.

neutral upwind · weak reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 65
Share 14.2%
  • First 40.7
  • X-43
  • Grand Soleil 40

LEANFORCE

Compact scale — downwind-neutral in banked race evidence.

weak upwind · neutral reaching · weak downwind

Boats 81
Share 17.7%
  • Elan 333
  • Miura
  • Dufour 30 Classic

AEROCORE

Large scale · upright posture · tender reserve — measured downwind advantage in banked race evidence.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 47
Share 10.3%
  • First 36
  • Bavaria CR 46
  • J-120

Event cohort view · 15 boats · as of 2026-08-20

Selected Race Result

ORC DH Worlds 2026 — Classes A, B, C.

15 of 457 fleet boats competed. 6 races — one short offshore course of roughly 32–40 nautical miles and one long course of roughly 193–230, scored per class on time-on-time with ECMWF weather routing. May 21–22, 2026, on the Dutch contingent's home North Sea waters — the largest Dutch race group at any world championship in the archive. On Comparative Time, negative is faster than the rating expects (the boat beat its rating); positive is slower. On Crew Residual, negative means the crew beat the boat's archetype-expected pace; positive sits below that baseline.

Headlines

What the Dutch contingent did at the DH Worlds.

Most recent event in the Dutch record: Cowes Week 2026, 1–7 August 2026. Dutch-flagged boats raced the Solent week across several IRC classes; the archetype grid for the classified week cohort sits below, under Race Archetypes for Cowes Week 2026. The featured Dutch event stays the ORC DH Worlds 2026 (21–22 May 2026), whose dimension leaders follow.

Comparative Time

1. TEAM HEINER 4 · +17.9 sec/nm
2. WAVERIDER · +19.6 sec/nm
3. X-ESTEEM · +27.6 sec/nm

Crew Residual

1. TEAM HEINER 4 · 17.9 sec/nm
2. WAVERIDER · 19.6 sec/nm
3. X-ESTEEM · 27.6 sec/nm

Event Profile

Courses 32–230 nm offshore
Scoring ToT · ECMWF routing
Dates 2026-05-21/22
Stories

What we saw at the DH Worlds.

15 Dutch boats raced the ORC Double-Handed World Championship on home North Sea waters — the majority of the 26 boats with scored observations at the event, across one short and one long offshore course per class, scored on time-on-time with ECMWF weather routing. The contingent's Comparative Time numbers tell the story of which two-person crews kept their boats closest to the weather-routed allowance at this running. On both ledgers, negative would mean a stronger result — here every Dutch boat ran positive, so the leaders are the ones with the smallest gap above the allowance.

Performance Verdict

TEAM HEINER 4 ran closest to its weather-routed allowance of the Dutch fifteen.

TEAM HEINER 4 LEANRUN (NED 7472, J-109) posted a +17.9 sec/nm Comparative Time across both scored offshore courses — the lowest delta of the Dutch contingent, roughly 31.6 sec/nm inside the race group median (+49.5). A Johnstone R J-109, it held the smallest gap to its ECMWF weather-routed allowance on the short course and the long course alike. The verdict is consistency: no Dutch boat got under its allowance at this running, and the boat that came closest did it on both surfaces the event measured.

  • Comp Time: +17.9 sec/nm · lowest of 15 NED boats
  • Margin to race-group median: 31.6 sec/nm · both scored courses counted
Partial data ORC DH Worlds 2026
Magnitude Gap

WAVERIDER: second on Comparative Time, nearly 30 sec/nm inside the Dutch median.

WAVERIDER HEFTLINE (NED 450, Sunfast 3200) ran +19.6 sec/nm across the two scored races — second of the Dutch contingent, roughly 30 sec/nm inside the race group median of +49.5. The hull frame matters here: a 32-foot production double-hander gave away waterline to most of the Dutch entries around it, yet it held the second-smallest gap to the ECMWF weather-routed allowance in the Dutch race group, ahead of boats a size class bigger. The margin is the story: only TEAM HEINER 4 ran closer to its allowance at this running.

  • Comp Time: +19.6 sec/nm · 2nd of 15 NED
  • Margin to race-group median: 30 sec/nm · smallest platform among the leaders
Partial data ORC DH Worlds 2026
Fleet vs Race Composition Shift

A HEFTLINE double-handed turnout from a fleet that ranks the shape fifth.

The Dutch national fleet leads with LEANRUN (18.8%), LEANFORCE (17.7%), and AEROFORCE (14.2%) — a distribution where HEFTLINE sits fifth at 10.9%. Yet the boats that raced the DH Worlds skewed toward it: five of the 15 were HEFTLINE (a third of the race group, roughly three times the archetype's national share), with AEROCORE (4 of 15, against a 10.3% national share) alongside. The compact, stiff-reserve hulls the national fleet does not over-index on were a shape the Netherlands' double-handed entries brought in force to their home world championship — while neither LEANFORCE, second in the national ledger, nor SPARKFLEX, fourth, put a single boat on the line, and LEANRUN, the national leader, sent two. The race group and the national fleet are two different populations; the self-selecting two-person offshore entry tilted toward HEFTLINE far more than the country's structural signature would predict.

  • NED national top-3: 18.8 / 17.7 / 14.2% · LEANRUN / LEANFORCE / AEROFORCE
  • DH Worlds Dutch race group: 5 of 15 HEFTLINE · 33.3% vs 10.9% national
Complete data Race group vs fleet
Race Archetypes

26 boats classified in the ORC DH Worlds 2026.

Archetype assignments dated 2026-08-20 — the FleetEdge analysis nearest this event.

HEFTLINE

Compact scale · level posture · stiff reserve — reaching-neutral in banked race evidence.

Boats 8
Share 30.8%

AEROCORE

Large scale · upright posture · tender reserve — measured downwind advantage in banked race evidence.

Boats 4
Share 15.4%

AEROSTREAM

Towering scale · level posture · stiff reserve — measured downwind advantage in banked race evidence.

Boats 4
Share 15.4%

LEANRUN

Large scale · upright posture — downwind-neutral in banked race evidence.

Boats 4
Share 15.4%

AEROFORCE

Large scale · level posture · neutral reserve — reaching-constrained in banked race evidence.

Boats 3
Share 11.5%

KEELRUN

Compact scale · upright posture · neutral reserve — reaching-neutral in banked race evidence.

Boats 1
Share 3.8%

SPARKFLEX

Minimal scale · upright posture · tender reserve — downwind-constrained in banked race evidence.

Boats 1
Share 3.8%

LEANFORCE

Compact scale — downwind-neutral in banked race evidence.

Boats 1
Share 3.8%
Race Archetypes

Cowes Week 2026 — the most recent event in the Dutch record, 1–7 August 2026.

Dutch-flagged boats raced the Solent week across several IRC classes. The cards below cover the whole classified week cohort, not the Dutch boats alone, in the FleetEdge archetype view published nearest the event; the featured ORC DH Worlds 2026 grid sits above.

Archetype assignments dated 2026-08-20 — the FleetEdge analysis nearest this event.

AEROCORE

Large scale · upright posture · tender reserve — measured downwind advantage in banked race evidence.

Boats 3
Share 20.0%

AEROSTREAM

Towering scale · level posture · stiff reserve — measured downwind advantage in banked race evidence.

Boats 4
Share 26.7%

AEROFORCE

Large scale · level posture · neutral reserve — reaching-constrained in banked race evidence.

Boats 3
Share 20.0%

HEFTLINE

Compact scale · level posture · stiff reserve — reaching-neutral in banked race evidence.

Boats 1
Share 6.7%

LEANRUN

Large scale · upright posture — downwind-neutral in banked race evidence.

Boats 2
Share 13.3%

SPARKFLEX

Minimal scale · upright posture · tender reserve — downwind-constrained in banked race evidence.

Boats 1
Share 6.7%

LEANFORCE

Compact scale — downwind-neutral in banked race evidence.

Boats 1
Share 6.7%

Classified fleet view · 455 of 457 classified · as of 2026-08-20

Fleet Stories

The Dutch fleet's signature.

LEANRUN carries close to a fifth of the Dutch fleet

LEANRUN is the leading archetype across the Dutch fleet at 86 boats (18.8%) — the largest single share, and one of two Dutch shapes to clear the 15% dominance mark, about a point ahead of LEANFORCE at 81 boats (17.7%), with AEROFORCE (14.2%) third. LEANRUN is the large-scale shape that sails upright and sits downwind-neutral in banked race evidence; LEANFORCE, its nearest rival, is compact-scale and equally in line with the fleet norm on the same running legs. That the Netherlands leads with those two in that order says something structural about how the fleet is built: a national ledger topped by large, upright-sailing hulls, with the compact platforms massed immediately behind them rather than displaced to the tail.

Johnstone R — the Netherlands' most-common design voice

Across the Dutch fleet, Johnstone R is the most-represented designer at 52 boats (11.4%) — the largest single share in a fleet where no board crosses the dominance mark. Judel-Vrolijk and the Jeppesen-Nielsen X-Yachts boards follow. The J/Boats production lines — J-109, J-105, J-99, J-35 — carry that share through the Dutch club and offshore fleet, sharing the leaderboard with the German Judel-Vrolijk partnership that has shaped a generation of Dutch grand-prix entries. The drawing-board ledger is broad: market presence, not market command.

Popular Classes

The boats that define Netherlands racing.

J-109 (11)

J/Boats' mid-2000s IRC 35-footer — one-design capable, handicap friendly.

J-105 (8)

The J/Boats 35 that built club asymmetric racing.

First 31.7 (7)

Beneteau's Finot-designed club racer — the backbone of European ORC fleets.

J-99 (7)

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

J-35 (6)

A racer-cruiser from Tillotson-Pearson.

Continue

Go deeper.

Fleet Overview

The global offshore racing landscape and how the Dutch fleet fits within it.

Platform Scale

How FleetEdge measures racing across geographies and fleet types globally.

Join the world's offshore racing teams.

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

See Netherlands Racing — Baltic Offshore See Fleet Overview