Switzerland

151 boats. GLIDEFORM-led fleet DNA. A Class A European title carried back to the lakes from Palma.

Kinship

Every fleet has a fingerprint.

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

 Hidden Shape

11 archetypes across 31 dimensional features.
How this country's fleet clusters before the results arrive.

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

A hundred and fifty-one Swiss boats on the global water.

151 Swiss boats make Switzerland a landlocked nation whose ambitions reach well beyond its three lakes — GLIDEFORM-led at 33.1% (one in three classified boats), and in 2025 KAJSA III carried the Class A European title home from Palma to Lake Constance on a DK 46.

151
boats
148
ORC-rated
10
archetypes
1
European title 2025
National cohort · as of 2026-04-21 · build a2e90234

ORC Authority: Swiss Sailing · Swiss Rating Office

Swiss Sailing and the Swiss Rating Office govern 151 SUI-flagged ORC hulls in the FleetEdge corpus — a pure-ORC national fleet with no IRC-synthetic twins. Lake Geneva, Lake Zürich and Lake Constance are the home waters; the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and European championship venues are the away circuit. The national fleet does not dominate any one event on participation, but it does carry championship firepower at the grand-prix end — and its archetype signature is unlike any other Atlantic or Mediterranean nation's because it is shaped by light-wind lake racing first, offshore racing second.

GLIDEFORM leads at 33.1% (50 boats) — one in every three classified Swiss boats is a low-drag, downwind-biased hull. That is a structural preference, not a single-race signal: Swiss owners buy and race hulls that carry VMG through light patches and transitions, the exact shape of Swiss lake sailing. HEADFORCE follows at 17.2% (26 boats) and KEELFLEX anchors the top three at 13.9% (21 boats). The national mix is firmly low-drag — GRAVITYRUN, the sustained-breeze downwind momentum archetype, is far from the Swiss top and the fleet's character is closer to an efficient light-air VMG DNA than a heavy-weather runner DNA.

The 2026 Swiss forward path runs the lake championship circuit first, with the ESSE 850 one-design, J/Boats horizontal fleet, and Xp-33 racer-cruiser carrying Lake Geneva, Zürich and Constance club racing through the season, and KAJSA III's Copa del Rey defence the international title target the country has already proven it can win. From the lakes to the Mediterranean, in that order.

At a glance

Switzerland — structural snapshot.

Scope
151 boats
146 ORC-rated · 5 IRC-synthetic
Top 3 archetypes
  1. GLIDEFORM — 50 boats (33.1%)
  2. HEADFORCE — 26 boats (17.2%)
  3. KEELFLEX — 21 boats (13.9%)
Eleven canonical performance archetypes cluster the fleet by dimensional signature. See the full map →
Top designer cluster
Johnstone R
14 boats (9.3%) — the most-represented design voice in this fleet.

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

National cohort · as of 2026-04-23 · build e775022a
Hidden Shape

The shape of the Swiss fleet.

151 Swiss boats across 10 archetypes — here's how they cluster, and what the collective signature reveals about lake racing and Mediterranean grand-prix campaigns.

The Swiss ORC Fleet Signature

Switzerland's fleet is a GLIDEFORM-led lake-racing collective with a grand-prix crown. GLIDEFORM leads at 33.1% (50 boats) — low-drag, downwind-biased hulls that carry VMG through light patches and transitions, the exact geometry Swiss lake sailing rewards. HEADFORCE follows at 17.2% (26 boats) with pressure-driven compact-rig platforms for the upwind-biased lake courses, and KEELFLEX anchors the top three at 13.9% (21 boats) with the narrow-stability-window grand-prix tier where KAJSA III and MUSICA live. The ESSE 850 — a Felci-designed, Swiss-built Proteus sportboat — is the single largest class in the national cohort at 12 boats, a uniquely Swiss one-design found nowhere else. In 2025 KAJSA III (DK 46) won Class A at the 43rd Copa del Rey — Switzerland's only European championship class title of the season, carried back to the lakes from Palma.

  • GLIDEFORM 33.1% · 50 boats
  • HEADFORCE 17.2% · 26 boats
  • KEELFLEX 13.9% · 21 boats

Dimension emphasis: Hull Efficiency · Comp & Time · Crew Effectiveness

The 2026 Swiss forward path runs lake championship first and KAJSA III's Copa del Rey Class A defence second — a GLIDEFORM-led national fleet on Lake Geneva, Zürich and Constance, with a KEELFLEX grand-prix layer carrying the European championship signature into the Mediterranean when the lakes release.

High confidence Production

Glideform

Low-drag hull with strong downwind bias through efficient waterline-to-beam ratios.

Boats 50
Share 33.1%

Headforce

Pressure-driven compact-rig hull that punches through chop at the windward mark.

Boats 26
Share 17.2%

Keelflex

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

Boats 21
Share 13.9%

Steelform

Compact-rig stiff-platform with the fleet's lowest race-to-race variance.

Boats 17
Share 11.3%

Aeromax

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

Boats 13
Share 8.6%

Balancecore

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

Boats 9
Share 6.0%

Ironwind

Stiff, stable-drive platform with predictable load behaviour.

Boats 5
Share 3.3%

Deepframe

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

Boats 4
Share 2.6%

Aeroblade

Refined-rig platform with sharp heel sensitivity and rapid trim response when sailed flat.

Boats 2
Share 1.3%

Stormline

Big-rig heel-sensitive platform with the fleet's highest rig-power-to-stability ratio.

Boats 1
Share 0.7%

Swiss fleet diversity across 10 archetypes. GLIDEFORM anchors the fleet at 33.1% — one in three classified Swiss boats is a low-drag, downwind-biased hull, the shape of lake sailing. HEADFORCE and KEELFLEX fill out the top three at 17.2% and 13.9%, giving the fleet a distinctly light-air character. GRAVITYRUN — sustained-breeze downwind momentum — is absent from the top archetypes and not represented in the current Swiss fleet; the national mix is an efficient light-air VMG DNA, not a heavy-weather runner DNA.

Archetypes in the Swiss fleet, grounded in real platforms.

GLIDEFORM

33.1% · 50

Low-drag, downwind-biased hulls built for light-wind lake racing.

  • ESSE 850Umberto Felci / Proteus (Switzerland, 12 boats)
  • J 109Johnstone R / J Boats
  • ESSE 750Umberto Felci / Proteus (4 boats)

Swiss GLIDEFORM boats cluster on the uniquely Swiss ESSE 850 and ESSE 750 — Felci-designed, Proteus-built sportboats that define Swiss lake one-design racing. The ESSE 850 is the single largest class in the national cohort at 12 boats, nearly triple the next-closest class, and the low-drag downwind-biased geometry of GLIDEFORM through efficient waterline-to-beam ratios is the hull philosophy built for Swiss lake light-air VMG.

HEADFORCE

17.2% · 26

Pressure-driven compact-rig hulls punching through chop at the windward mark.

  • Xp-33Niels Jeppesen / X-Yachts (5 boats)
  • J-80 ODJohnstone R / J Boats (4 boats)
  • J 11SJohnstone R / J Boats

Swiss HEADFORCE boats cluster on the Xp-33 X-Yachts production racer-cruiser and the J/Boats horizontal line — upwind-biased production hulls that punch through transitional lake breeze, forming the second backbone of the Swiss fleet behind the GLIDEFORM cluster.

KEELFLEX

13.9% · 21

Narrow-stability-window grand-prix platforms.

  • DK 46 (KAJSA III)Botin · Class A European Champion 2025
  • TP 52 (MUSICA)SUI 52111 · Class 0 grand-prix
  • J-99Johnstone R / J Boats

Swiss KEELFLEX boats carry the grand-prix crown of the national fleet — KAJSA III (DK 46) won Class A at the 43rd Copa del Rey 2025 and MUSICA (TP 52) sailed Class 0 at the same regatta. Both platforms are narrow-stability-window grand-prix hulls that live or die on trim discipline, and in 2025 KAJSA III converted that discipline into a European championship class title.

What we saw

From Lake Constance to Palma and back.

Two Swiss boats raced the 43rd Copa del Rey ORC European Championship 2025 on Palma Bay against a 114-boat international field, and KAJSA III came home with Class A — the country's only European championship class title of the season, carried back to Lake Constance on a Botin-designed DK 46. Four insights from the Swiss grand-prix crown and the GLIDEFORM-led national fleet behind it.

Pre-race window · Archetype-Conditions

Swiss lake light wind is where GLIDEFORM was built to live.

The 2026 Swiss season opens on Lake Geneva, Lake Zürich and Lake Constance with the club championship circuit and the ESSE 850 one-design fleet, and runs through the summer into KAJSA III's Copa del Rey Class A defence in the Mediterranean. Swiss lake conditions are unlike any other ORC venue in the FleetEdge map — variable thermals, light patches, shifting pressure, transitions that punish power boats and reward patience. GLIDEFORM's 33.1% density is the highest single-archetype share of any national cohort on FleetEdge, and the low-drag downwind-biased geometry through efficient waterline-to-beam ratios is the hull philosophy built for exactly that pressure pattern. When a Swiss boat crosses the finish on Lake Zürich ahead of the fleet, it is usually because the GLIDEFORM low-drag signature held light-air VMG through a patch the competition dropped into. Pre-race speculation — actual conditions and crew execution will arbitrate.

  • SUI GLIDEFORM density: 33.1% · 50 boats
  • Highest single-archetype national share on FleetEdge
Pre-race speculative FE Weather × Archetype (historical)
Championship Citation

KAJSA III carried the DK 46 to Class A at the 43rd Copa del Rey.

KAJSA III (SUI-2012, DK 46, KEELFLEX) finished 1st of 34 in Class A with 25.5 points at the 43rd Copa del Rey ORC European Championship 2025 — the country's only European championship class title of the regatta. A Botin-designed KEELFLEX DK 46 in a 114-boat international field, converting 40 scored races on the Palma breeze into the Class A trophy and holding off the German runner-up (SUI-2012 GER-8042) and the Spanish third (ESP-19981) to finish the week with a clean line into the national cohort's only trophy. The KEELFLEX archetype is a narrow-stability-window grand-prix platform that rewards crew discipline on trim and balance across every race, and KAJSA III delivered that discipline for the 40-race stretch that earned the class title.

  • 1st of 34 · Class A, 25.5 points
  • Podium: SUI-GER-ESP · KEELFLEX DK 46
High confidence RR 43rd Copa del Rey 2025
Multi-Dimension Presence

KAJSA III led the Swiss cohort on Comp Time, Crew Effectiveness, and Hull Efficiency at the same regatta.

KAJSA III posted 1st of 2 in the Swiss cohort on Comparative Time at 18.75 sec/nm vs ORC (25.96 ahead of MUSICA), 1st on Crew Effectiveness at 11.37 sec/nm residual (45.14 ahead), and 1st on Hull Efficiency Index at 0.477 (0.151 ahead of MUSICA at 0.326). The Class A European champion was also the Swiss leader on every corrected-time dimension and on hull efficiency — a three-family multi-dimension presence in the conditions that prevailed at Palma. MUSICA's higher raw VMG numbers (7.03 kn upwind, 8.50 kn downwind) came from the TP 52 platform and its Class 0 scale, not from better allowance conversion; on the 40-race week, the DK 46 converted physics into a trophy and the TP 52 did not. A rare full-stack result from a 2-boat national cohort.

  • Comp Time: 18.75 sec/nm (1st of 2) · Crew Eff 11.37 (1st)
  • Hull Eff: 0.477 (1st) · three-family full-stack
High confidence RR 43rd Copa del Rey 2025 · SUI cohort
Fleet vs Race Composition Shift

The Swiss boats that travelled to Palma were not the Swiss fleet.

Switzerland's national fleet runs GLIDEFORM 33.1% / HEADFORCE 17.2% / KEELFLEX 13.9% — the everyday lake-racing signature of the full 151-boat cohort. The 2 Swiss boats that travelled to the 43rd Copa del Rey were both KEELFLEX (KAJSA III DK 46 and MUSICA TP 52) — a 100% KEELFLEX cohort where the national average is 13.9%. The Palma delegation is not a cross-section of the Swiss fleet; it is a narrow slice of the grand-prix top, the KEELFLEX layer where international championship programmes live. GLIDEFORM, the archetype that leads the national fleet at one in three classified boats, was not represented at Palma — because the GLIDEFORM tier lives on the lakes, and the KEELFLEX tier travels. When the European championship result comes home, read it as a grand-prix result from a championship programme, not a signature of Swiss lake racing as a whole.

  • Fleet lead: GLIDEFORM 33.1%
  • Race cohort: KEELFLEX 100% · 2 of 2 entries
High confidence FE Cohort vs Fleet
Continue

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