Cowes Week Fleet

The Solent's flagship regatta week — 59 races across eleven IRC scoring groups, from the Queen's Cup to the Britannia Cup

Cowes, Isle of Wight (Solent courses, 1–7 August 2026)
674 boats 59 races 101 obs 204 Fastnet overlap International event fleet · as of 2026-09-02
Kinship

One harbor, two programs.

The regatta week and the RORC Channel series both start at Cowes — the offshore program is the sibling lens.

 Hidden Shape

A fleet led by LEANRUN.
LEANRUN and LEANFORCE stack 39.9% of the combined fleet.

LEANRUN brings large-scale Large-Platform hulls; LEANFORCE brings compact hulls from the Compact family — two words 19 boats apart.
Photo: Farr Yacht Design
Character

The Solent's regatta-week fleet. 674 boats, eleven IRC scoring groups.

Cowes Week is the Solent's flagship regatta — a week of round-the-cans and coastal racing off Cowes, Isle of Wight, sailed 1–7 August 2026 across 59 races and eleven IRC scoring groups, from IRC Class 0's Queen's Cup and Britannia Cup boards down through IRC Class 7. The combined Cowes fleet in the latest published view holds 674 boats — 236 ORC-rated and 438 mapped IRC entries (an IRC entry mapped into FleetEdge's ORC-based physics view) — and 101 of them were observed racing at the 2026 week. This page reads that combined fleet: the boats that call the Solent home across the season, seen through the regatta that defines it.

The fleet is led by LEANRUN. LEANRUN leads at 21.4% (144 boats) — the large-scale core of the Large-Platform family, big hulls sailed hard around the cans. LEANFORCE follows at 18.5% (125 boats) — the Compact family's anchor word here, built on smaller hulls that convert crew work into corrected-time results. HEFTLINE takes 17.5% (118 boats) — compact, stiff-reserve hulls that carry a measured upwind advantage in the race results — with AEROFORCE behind it at 11.9% (80 boats). The four leading words together carry 467 of the 674 boats — 69.3% of the combined fleet. It is a Solent grid in the round: production mid-size classes in depth, big IRC 0 platforms at the top, and the club end of the IRC ladder filling the week's eleven scoring groups.

204 of the 674 combined-fleet boats also raced the 2025 Rolex Fastnet (30.3%) — the harbor that hosts the week is the same harbor the Fastnet leaves from, and the crossover shows it. Read this hub for the fleet identity and the archetype signature, then drop into the Cowes Week 2026 lens below — where a J-112 took four race wins in LMIS IRC Class 3 and a TP-52 put up eight top-three finishes on the IRC Class 0 board.

Event cohort view · 101 boats · as of 2026-09-02

Selected Race Result

Cowes Week 2026 — a week of racing, one fleet at home.

101 of the 674 combined-fleet boats were observed across the 59 races of the 2026 week, 1–7 August 2026, scored in eleven IRC groups from the Queen's Cup and Britannia Cup boards of IRC Class 0 down through IRC Class 7. Race ranks are published per class; no corrected-time analytics in sec/nm (seconds per nautical mile — pace normalized by distance) are published for this event. The headline boards below rank the classified week cohort on the physics-side families; the stories that follow read the week's class racing in detail.

Headlines

Cowes Week 2026, 1–7 August 2026 — physics-side leaders in the classified week cohort.

Cowes Week 2026, sailed 1–7 August 2026: cohort-relative leaders across the week's classified archetype cohort, on the certificate-physics families. Upwind and Run VMG are the ORC velocity-prediction potentials at 12 kt; the Hull Efficiency Index reads how much waterline-driven speed the hull extracts per unit of drag-relevant volume.

Upwind VMG — 12 kt, kn

1. INO VERITAS · 6.87
2. STOERTEBEKER · 6.49
3. Van Uden · 6.47

Run VMG — 12 kt, kn

1. INO VERITAS · 8.61
2. STOERTEBEKER · 8.07
3. Van Uden · 8.02

Hull Efficiency Index

1. GRIEL · 0.618
2. Olympix · 0.587
3. Emily of Cowes · 0.582
Stories

What the week tells us.

Championship Citation

Jack Rabbit — four race wins in LMIS IRC Class 3.

Jack Rabbit LEANRUN (J-112, NED-1112) won four of the week's LMIS IRC Class 3 races and added three seconds — seven top-three finishes across the seven days. The Johnstone-designed J-112 sits in the heart of the combined fleet's leading word: a large-scale, upright platform sailed hard around the cans. Four race wins in one class over one week is the strongest single-class winning record in the observed 2026 cohort — a Dutch-flagged boat taking the measure of the Solent's home water, race after race.

  • Race wins: 4 · LMIS IRC Class 3 · plus 3 seconds
  • Platform: J-112 · Johnstone design
  • Top-three rows: 7 across the week
Complete data Cowes Week 2026
Class Cluster

Warp 5 owned the IRC Class 4 scoreboard.

Warp 5 HEFTLINE (J-99, NED-9060) took three race wins, three seconds, and a third in IRC Class 4 — seven top-three rows in a single class week. The J-99 is the J/Boats short-handed offshore specialist, and at Cowes it raced as a compact, stiff-reserve HEFTLINE hull converting consistency into silverware. With Jack Rabbit LEANRUN winning LMIS IRC Class 3, the Johnstone design office put boats at the front of two of the week's eleven scoring groups — a two-class Dutch-Johnstone thread through the 2026 results.

  • IRC Class 4: 3 wins · 3 seconds · 1 third
  • Platform: J-99 · Johnstone design
  • Johnstone front-runners: 2 classes (Class 4 · LMIS Class 3)
Complete data Cowes Week 2026
Multi-Dimension Presence

INO VERITAS: eight top-threes on the IRC Class 0 board.

INO VERITAS AEROSTREAM (TP-52, GBR-5N) put up eight top-three finishes in IRC Class 0 — a race win, six seconds, and a third — in the class that sails the Queen's Cup and Britannia Cup boards. The Botin-designed TP-52 also tops both of the week cohort's velocity boards — first in Upwind VMG at 6.87 kn and first in Run VMG at 8.61 kn at 12 kt — the fastest certificate in the classified cohort, converting on the water nearly every start. Eight podium rows without a dominant win count is the profile of a big boat racing a deep class at the top of the regatta.

  • IRC Class 0: 1 win · 6 seconds · 1 third
  • Upwind VMG: 6.87 kn · 1st of 15 · Run VMG: 8.61 kn · 1st of 15
  • Platform: TP-52 · Botin design
Complete data Cowes Week 2026
Fleet vs Race Composition

The classified week grid tilted to the big AERO words.

Of the 101 boats observed at the 2026 week, 15 carry an archetype classification in the FleetEdge view published nearest the event — and that classified group tilts toward the big AERO words. AEROSTREAM co-leads the classified week grid with LEANRUN at 26.7% (4 boats) each, with AEROCORE and AEROFORCE at 13.3% (2 boats) each. AEROCORE and AEROSTREAM together hold 40.0% of the classified cohort against a combined 23.1% share of the 674-boat fleet. The two leading words ran closer to their fleet weight: LEANRUN and LEANFORCE, 39.9% of the combined fleet, held 33.3% of the classified week grid — five boats, four of them LEANRUN. AEROSTREAM's four classified entries all raced at the top of the ladder — three on the IRC Class 0 board, one in IRC Class 2 — while the fleet's production mid-size majority raced largely outside the published archetype view nearest this event.

  • AEROCORE + AEROSTREAM: 6 of 15 · 40.0% vs 23.1% fleet share
  • LEANRUN + LEANFORCE: 5 of 15 · 33.3% vs 39.9% fleet share
  • Cohort: 15 classified of 101 observed · 674-boat fleet baseline
Partial data Cowes Week 2026
Race Archetypes

15 boats classified in Cowes Week 2026.

15 of the 101 boats observed at the week carry an archetype classification in the FleetEdge view published nearest the event; the rest are mapped IRC entries not yet classed in that published view. This is the event lens — distinct from the 674-boat combined-fleet Fleet DNA.

Archetype assignments dated 2026-08-28 — the FleetEdge analysis nearest this event.

AEROSTREAM

Towering scale · level posture · stiff reserve — downwind-neutral in race results.

Boats 4
Share 26.7%

LEANRUN

— upwind-neutral in race results.

Boats 4
Share 26.7%

AEROCORE

Large scale · tender reserve — downwind-neutral in race results.

Boats 2
Share 13.3%

AEROFORCE

Large scale · level posture · neutral reserve — measured reaching advantage in race results.

Boats 2
Share 13.3%

HEFTLINE

Compact scale · level posture · stiff reserve — measured upwind advantage in race results.

Boats 1
Share 6.7%

LEANFORCE

Compact scale — measured downwind advantage in race results.

Boats 1
Share 6.7%

SPARKFLEX

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

Boats 1
Share 6.7%

International event fleet · 674 boats · as of 2026-09-02

Fleet DNA

How the Cowes Week fleet is built.

674 boats in the fleet. 236 ORC-rated and 438 mapped IRC entries attributed across eight archetypes; 670 classified.

The Cowes Week Fleet Signature

The combined Cowes fleet is a grid with one clear leader. LEANRUN leads at 21.4% (144 boats) — the large-scale core of the Large-Platform family. LEANFORCE follows at 18.5% (125 boats) — the Compact family's anchor word here. HEFTLINE takes 17.5% (118 boats) — compact, level hulls on a stiff righting reserve — with AEROFORCE at 11.9% (80 boats) ahead of AEROSTREAM at 11.7% (79 boats), the towering-scale, stiff-reserve word, and AEROCORE at 11.4% (77 boats). KEELRUN and SPARKFLEX close the tail. The four leading words together carry 467 of the 674 boats — 69.3% of the combined fleet — a Solent grid built on production mid-size depth and big-platform top end rather than any single defining mode.

  • LEANRUN 21.4% · 144 boats
  • LEANFORCE 18.5% · 125 boats
  • HEFTLINE 17.5% · 118 boats

Dimension emphasis: Upwind VMG · Run VMG · Hull Efficiency · Crew Residual

Farr Design anchors the designer signature at 25.5% (172 of 674 boats). The Farr-penned Beneteau First 34.7 (66 boats) and First 36.7 (47 boats) form the structural backbone at 16.8% of the combined fleet between them. 204 of 674 boats also raced the 2025 Rolex Fastnet — a 30.3% crossover from the harbor the race starts from.

Complete data Latest published view

The full archetype distribution across the combined fleet.

LEANRUN

— upwind-neutral in race results.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · weak downwind

Boats 144
Share 21.4%
  • First 36.7
  • J-109
  • First 35

LEANFORCE

Compact scale — measured downwind advantage in race results.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 125
Share 18.5%
  • Fortuna 9
  • Mat 10.10
  • Aphrodite 101

HEFTLINE

Compact scale · level posture · stiff reserve — measured upwind advantage in race results.

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · moderate downwind

Boats 118
Share 17.5%
  • J-111
  • Farr 30
  • Cape 31

AEROFORCE

Large scale · level posture · neutral reserve — measured reaching advantage in race results.

weak upwind · weak reaching · weak downwind

Boats 80
Share 11.9%
  • First 40.7
  • X-43
  • Grand Soleil 40

AEROSTREAM

Towering scale · level posture · stiff reserve — downwind-neutral in race results.

neutral upwind · weak reaching · weak downwind

Boats 79
Share 11.7%
  • TP-52
  • XP-44
  • Farr 40

AEROCORE

Large scale · tender reserve — downwind-neutral in race results.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 77
Share 11.4%
  • First 36
  • Bavaria CR 46
  • J-120

KEELRUN

Compact scale · upright posture · neutral reserve — upwind-neutral in race results.

strong upwind · strong reaching · strong downwind

Boats 25
Share 3.7%
  • First 31.7
  • J-105
  • Sunfast 3200

SPARKFLEX

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · moderate downwind

Boats 22
Share 3.3%
  • J-80 OD
  • J-24
  • J-70 ONE DESIGN

The three leading words — LEANRUN, LEANFORCE, and HEFTLINE — carry 387 of the 674 boats, 57.4% of the combined fleet, and AEROFORCE's 80 lift the top four to 69.3%. The lead block sets a Large-Platform word over a Compact word and a stiff Displacement-Led word. Three of the eight words above — LEANRUN, AEROCORE, and LEANFORCE — span two measured slots apiece — one population wearing one name; see how eleven resolved into eight. This is a fleet built for the Solent in the round: tidal-gate round-the-cans weeks, Channel starts, and the production classes that keep both full.

At a glance

Cowes Week — structural profile.

Scope
674 boats
236 ORC-rated · 438 mapped-IRC
Top 3 archetypes
  1. LEANRUN — 144 boats (21.4%)
  2. LEANFORCE — 125 boats (18.5%)
  3. HEFTLINE — 118 boats (17.5%)
Eight canonical performance archetypes (the fleet’s eight recurring design types) cluster the fleet by dimensional signature. See the full map →
Top designer cluster
Farr Design
172 boats (25.5%) — the most-represented design voice in this fleet.

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

International event fleet · as of 2026-09-02

Classified fleet view · 670 of 674 classified · as of 2026-09-02

Fleet Stories

Combined-fleet signature.

Designer Density

Farr Design anchors the Solent's home fleet.

Farr Design leads the combined-fleet designer signature at 25.5% (172 of 674 boats). Inside the Farr block, the Beneteau First 34.7 (66 boats) and First 36.7 (47 boats) make up the structural backbone — 16.8% of the entire combined fleet on those two production classes alone. The clearest counterweight is the J/Boats Johnstone line, led by the J-109 (25 boats) and the J-105 (21) — and at the 2026 week it was the Johnstone end that converted, with front-running boats in two of the eleven scoring groups. The Farr-penned First line is the structural baseline of Solent racing in this published view; the week's results are where the counterweight answers.

  • Farr Design: 172 boats · 25.5%
  • First 34.7 + First 36.7: 16.8% of fleet
  • J-109 + J-105 (Johnstone): 6.8% of fleet
Complete data FleetEdge fleet-wide data
Model Density

The First 34.7 is the Solent's most common boat.

The Beneteau First 34.7 is the largest single class in the combined fleet at 9.8% (66 of 674 boats), with the First 36.7 second at 7.0% (47 boats). The two Farr-penned Beneteau production classes carry 16.8% of the fleet between them and fill the mid-size IRC scoring groups; the J/Boats Johnstone line answers with the J-109 (25 boats, 3.7%) and the J-105 (21 boats, 3.1%), and the First 40 (18 boats, 2.7%) rounds out the top five. Every boat in the fleet carries a class field in this published view, so the class grid below reads the whole fleet, not a sample.

  • First 34.7: 66 boats · 9.8%
  • First 36.7: 47 boats · 7.0%
  • Top five classes: 177 boats · 26.3% of the fleet
Complete data FleetEdge fleet-wide data
Archetype Density

LEANRUN leads a broad, balanced grid.

LEANRUN leads the combined fleet at 21.4% (144 boats) with LEANFORCE 19 boats behind at 18.5% (125 boats) — and the next pair follows: HEFTLINE at 17.5% (118 boats), AEROFORCE behind it at 11.9% (80 boats). LEANRUN is the large-scale core of the Large-Platform family; LEANFORCE is the Compact family's anchor word here; HEFTLINE brings compact, stiff-reserve hulls and AEROFORCE a second Large-Platform word. The four leading words carry 467 of the 674 boats — 69.3% of the combined fleet — with no word above a quarter of the fleet. This is a broad top block: a fleet whose regatta week runs eleven scoring groups because no single kind of boat defines it.

  • LEANRUN: 21.4% · LEANFORCE: 18.5%
  • HEFTLINE: 118 boats · 17.5% · AEROFORCE: 80 boats · 11.9%
  • Combined top-four words: 69.3% of the combined fleet
Complete data FleetEdge fleet-wide data
Popular Classes

The boats that fill the Solent's scoring groups.

First 34.7 (66)

The Beneteau Farr-penned racer-cruiser — the single largest class in the combined fleet, 9.8% of the boats. The backbone of the mid-size IRC scoring groups.

First 36.7 (47)

The larger Farr-First sister — 7.0% of the combined fleet. With the First 34.7, the two Farr-Beneteau classes together carry 16.8% of the entire fleet.

J-109 (25)

The Johnstone-designed J/Boats mid-size cruiser-racer — the largest J/Boats presence in the combined fleet at 3.7% of the boats, a mainstay of the Solent's mid-size IRC scoring groups.

J-105 (21)

The Johnstone-designed one-design sportboat — 3.1% of the combined fleet, central to the mid-size reaching grid.

First 40 (18)

The Beneteau First 40 — the bigger-Farr companion to the First 34.7/36.7 family, 2.7% of the fleet, bridging club racing and the top scoring groups.

Continue

Go deeper.

Cowes Offshore

The RORC Channel series that shares the harbor — seven offshore races, the week's offshore sibling.

Fastnet

204 of 674 combined-fleet boats also raced the 2025 Rolex Fastnet — the race that leaves from this harbor.

United Kingdom

The UK country page — British-flagged boats across the week, the Channel series, and the broader offshore program.

Fleet Archetypes

The FleetEdge archetype framework — LEANRUN, LEANFORCE, and six other performance archetypes.

IRC Racing

All six IRC offshore classics in one analytical framework.

ORC World Fleet

The international championship circuit — the ORC counterweight to the Solent's IRC week.

Analyze the Cowes Week fleet.

Eleven scoring groups, one home water. The Solent's fleet, measured.

Explore FleetEdge Explore the Cowes Offshore Series