Rolex Fastnet Race

The 205-boat 2025 fleet — Solent to Cherbourg via the Fastnet Rock.

Cowes, UK Cherbourg, France
205 boats 1 race 695 nm 20 countries International event fleet · as of 2026-07-10
Kinship

The Fastnet course is a century old.

The Solent start, the Channel transit, the Rock, the Cherbourg finish — find the race’s waters.

 Hidden Shape

11 archetypes.
How this fleet clusters before the results arrive.

How the Rolex Fastnet Race fleet races, before the results arrive.
Character

Six hundred and ninety-five miles. The Solent, the Channel, the Rock, Cherbourg.

The Rolex Fastnet Race is the biennial RORC offshore classic that founded modern offshore racing in 1925 and staged its centenary edition in July 2025. Cowes to Cherbourg via the Fastnet Rock — 695 nautical miles around the south coast of England, across the Celtic Sea to the rock off the southwest tip of Ireland, and back across the Channel to Cherbourg. The course rewards no single boat trait: tidal-gate timing at Portland Bill and the Needles, breeze management across the Channel, displacement management around the Rock, and crew endurance back to the French coast.

FleetEdge tracks 205 boats in the Fastnet 2025 fleet — ORC-rated hulls and IRC-rated hulls together, analyzed through the same physics framework. Eighty-seven carry ORC measurement certificates; 118 are IRC entries projected as ORC-mapped IRC entries using FleetEdge's IRC-to-ORC mapping, matched to their ORC design-family equivalents by hull dimensions and rated with the full ORC physics profile. Every mapped entry is transparently labeled as a class-sibling projection. Both rating populations sit on the same comparative-time, hull-efficiency, and crew-residual axes — one of the deepest cross-rating analytical datasets on the offshore circuit.

The fleet is broad-spectrum by archetype and runs two clear leaders ahead of a deep mid-pack. GRAVITYRUN leads at 26.8% (55 boats), AEROMAX follows close behind at 21.0% (43), and GLIDEFORM sits third at 12.7% (26). The top three carry 60.5% of the classified fleet between them, but below the leaders the field fans out across the full archetype range — a breadth that mirrors the Fastnet’s reputation as the offshore race that does not pick a single hull. The geographic backbone is British and French: 69 boats fly GBR sail numbers (33.7%) and 59 fly FRA (28.8%), with Germany (20), the Netherlands (13), and Norway (7) carrying the secondary tier across 20 countries in total. The Fastnet 2025 fleet also overlaps heavily with the Cowes Offshore Series — 66 of the 205 boats double-ran Cowes–Dinard–St Malo, and 50 ran the Myth of Malham, signaling a tightly scheduled UK and French offshore season around the centenary race.

Event cohort view · 205 boats · as of 2026-07-10

Selected Race Result

Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 — Overall.

All 205 of the 205 fleet boats competed. 695 nautical miles point-to-point, Cowes to Cherbourg via the Fastnet Rock. One race, IRC overall scoring. 26 July 2025. 87 boats carry full ORC measurement; 118 are IRC-rated and projected as ORC-mapped IRC entries on the same comparative-time axis.

Headlines

Dimension leaders — the 205-boat Fastnet fleet.

Cohort-relative leaders from the Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 publication. Finish order comes from the IRC overall standings; Comparative Time is the corrected sec/nm delta against the fleet’s ORC-median allowance (negative = faster than the rating expects); Crew Residual is the sec/nm gap between actual pace and the boat’s archetype-expected pace (negative = the crew beat that expectation). 86 of the 205 boats carry comparative-time records and 87 carry crew-residual data; both rating populations sit on the same axis via the IRC-to-ORC mapping process.

IRC Overall Finish

1. LEON · 1st
2. LANN AEL 3 · 2nd
3. JOLT 6 · 4th
Cohort 205 boats

Comparative Time

1. FREYA · −99.5 s/nm
2. LEON · −77.8 s/nm
3. Panther · −49.7 s/nm
Cohort 86 with data

Crew Residual

1. FREYA · −99.5 s/nm
2. LEON · −81.6 s/nm
3. SOLENN · −53.2 s/nm
Cohort 87 with data

Archetype Lead

1. AEROBLADE · 22
2. GLIDEFORM · 15
3. DEEPFRAME · 13
Cohort 87 classified

Nation Concentration

1. GBR · 69
2. FRA · 59
3. GER · 20
Cohort 20 countries

Designer Concentration

1. Farr Design · 59
2. Johnstone R · 25
3. Judel-Vrolijk · 13
Cohort 205 boats
Stories

What the Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 told us.

Championship Citation

LEON — Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 Winner, IRC Overall

LEON GLIDEFORM, the French JPK-1050 (FRA 53524), won the Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 overall under IRC — first across the published IRC overall standings at the centenary running of the race. The win is backed by the physics: LEON’s corrected pace came in 77.8 sec/nm faster than the fleet’s ORC-median allowance expectation over the 695-mile course — the second-largest comparative-time delta in the 86-boat comparison group — and the crew residual accounts for the bulk of that gap. A GLIDEFORM hull — the low-drag, efficient-flow family — sailed by a crew that out-sailed the platform’s expectation from the Solent to Cherbourg.

  • IRC Overall finish: 1st · 205-boat FleetEdge cohort
  • Comparative-time delta: −77.8 sec/nm vs ORC-median expectation
  • Archetype: GLIDEFORM · JPK-1050 · FRA
Complete data Published event standings
Nationality / Class Cluster

A French one-two at the front of the IRC standings.

France took the top two steps of the Fastnet 2025 IRC overall standings. LEON GLIDEFORM (JPK-1050) finished first and LANN AEL 3 STEELCORE (First 35, FRA 346) second — two French production cruiser-racers ahead of every grand-prix program in the 205-boat FleetEdge fleet. The cluster runs deeper than the podium: France fields 59 boats (28.8% of the fleet), and the French shorthanded-offshore lineage — JPK 10.30s and 10.50s, Sun Fasts, and the First family — is concentrated in the front half of the standings. The Fastnet is the RORC’s home race, but at this edition the French offshore school owned the top of the corrected-time table.

  • IRC Overall 1st: LEON · FRA · JPK-1050
  • IRC Overall 2nd: LANN AEL 3 · FRA · First 35
  • French cohort share: 59 boats · 28.8%
Complete data Published event standings
Archetype-Conditions Dominance

DEEPFRAME crowded the classified front at this running of the race.

At this running of the Fastnet, read through the FleetEdge archetype view published nearest the race, DEEPFRAME hulls held 4 of the 6 top-20 IRC overall places carried by classified fleet boats — from a family that holds 14.9% of the classified cohort at this vintage. NOLA (Carkeek 40, 9th), BEAU IDEAL (Botin 41, 12th), Back 2 Black (GP-42, 15th), and GINKGO (H-39, 19th) led the deep-hull, drag-optimized charge, and LEON (GLIDEFORM, 1st overall) with CALLISTO (Pac-52, AEROBLADE, 7th) completed a clean sweep for the low-drag end of the archetype table in the conditions that prevailed on the 2025 course. The over-representation is conditional, not structural: drag-efficient platforms convert when the Channel legs stay moderate — a different pressure pattern across the Celtic Sea would reward a different hull family, and the race’s own history says no archetype owns the Rock.

  • DEEPFRAME in the classified top 20: 4 of 6 · NOLA (9th), BEAU IDEAL (12th), Back 2 Black (15th), GINKGO (19th)
  • DEEPFRAME share at this vintage: 13 of 87 · 14.9%
  • Other classified front-runners: LEON (GLIDEFORM, 1st), CALLISTO (AEROBLADE, 7th)
Complete data Published event standings
Magnitude Gap

BEAU IDEAL: 39 sec/nm clear of the ORC median from 12th overall.

BEAU IDEAL DEEPFRAME, the Botin 41 flying the British Virgin Islands flag (IVB 2047), converted a 39.4 sec/nm comparative-time advantage over the fleet’s ORC-median expectation into 12th in the IRC overall standings. Over 695 miles that delta compounds to better than seven and a half hours against a median-pace boat — a DEEPFRAME platform, in the FleetEdge view published nearest the race, running near the top of its conversion envelope. Among the fleet’s 86 comparison boats, only seven — led by FREYA and the winner LEON — posted larger corrected gaps; BEAU IDEAL’s sits on a single-race comparison basis, but it is the cleanest big-boat magnitude signal in the 2025 publication.

  • Comparative-time delta: −39.4 sec/nm vs ORC-median expectation
  • IRC Overall finish: 12th · 205-boat FleetEdge cohort
  • Archetype, near-race view: DEEPFRAME · Botin 41 · IVB
Complete data FleetEdge Comparative Time
Race Archetypes

87 boats classified in the Rolex Fastnet Race 2025.

Archetypes as published 2026-07-10 — the FleetEdge view nearest this event.

Of the 205-boat fleet, 87 carry a FleetEdge archetype assignment at this vintage — the FleetEdge view published nearest the 2025 race. The classified group leans light and drag-efficient: AEROBLADE leads at 22 boats, GLIDEFORM (15) and DEEPFRAME (13) follow, and no single family takes a commanding share. What the result table added was a light-and-efficient leading group — the families that live at the front when the Channel goes light.

AEROBLADE

High-efficiency rig with sharp heel sensitivity and rapid trim response.

Boats 22
Share 25.3%

GLIDEFORM

Low-drag hull delivering smooth, efficient downwind acceleration.

Boats 15
Share 17.2%

DEEPFRAME

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

Boats 13
Share 14.9%

AEROMAX

Upwind-power specialist with the fleet's strongest rig-driven VMG.

Boats 11
Share 12.6%

STEELFORM

Compact-rig, rigid platform delivering consistent, low-variance results.

Boats 10
Share 11.5%

GRAVITYRUN

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

Boats 5
Share 5.7%

BALANCECORE

A balance-sensitive, stability-positive design with a wide, forgiving performance envelope.

Boats 5
Share 5.7%

KEELFLEX

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

Boats 2
Share 2.3%

STORMLINE

High-power, heel-sensitive platform with explosive potential when sailed flat.

Boats 2
Share 2.3%

HEADFORCE

Upwind-biased pressure boat driving compact rigs through higher-drag hull forms.

Boats 1
Share 1.1%

IRONWIND

Stiff, stable-drive platform with predictable load behavior.

Boats 1
Share 1.1%

International event fleet · 205 boats · as of 2026-07-10

Fleet DNA

How the Fastnet fleet is built.

205 boats in the fleet. 87 ORC-rated and 118 mapped IRC entries attributed across 11 archetypes; 205 classified.

The Rolex Fastnet Fleet Signature

The Fastnet fleet runs two clear archetype leaders ahead of a deep, broad mid-pack. GRAVITYRUN leads at 26.8% (55 boats) — the heavy-mode momentum family with strong downwind power in sustained breeze, the archetype the Celtic Sea return leg rewards when the breeze fills in. AEROMAX follows close behind at 21.0% (43 boats) — the power-efficiency hybrid with strong upwind drive and moderate displacement, the family that holds the front when the Channel beats stay honest. GLIDEFORM sits third at 12.7% (26 boats) — the low-drag efficient-flow platform tuned for reaching-angle speed. Together the top three carry 60.5% of the classified fleet. Below them the field fans out: AEROBLADE carries 12.2% (25 boats) and DEEPFRAME 12.2% (25 boats), and a long tail (STEELCORE, STEELFORM, HEADFORCE, KEELFLEX, STORMLINE, IRONWIND) covers the remainder across six more families.

  • GRAVITYRUN 26.8% · 55 boats
  • AEROMAX 21.0% · 43 boats
  • GLIDEFORM 12.7% · 26 boats

Dimension emphasis: Comparative Time · Crew Residual · Sail Drive · Run VMG

Farr Design anchors the drawing-board signature at 28.8% (59 of 205 boats) — the largest single share of any fleet on the platform, well above the 15% dominance threshold. The Beneteau First 36.7 (21 boats), First 34.7 (17), First 40 (9), and First 40.7 (6) carry the heart of the Farr-drawn entry list. Johnstone R (J/Boats) follows at 12.2% (25 boats), Judel-Vrolijk at 6.3% (13), and Jeppesen-Nielsen (X-Yachts) at 4.9% (10). The whole fleet participated in Rolex Fastnet Race 2025; 66 of those boats also ran Cowes–Dinard–St Malo in the same UK offshore season.

Complete data Latest published view

The full 11-archetype distribution.

GRAVITYRUN

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 55
Share 26.8%
  • First 36.7
  • First 34.7
  • X-332

AEROMAX

Upwind-power specialist with the fleet's strongest rig-driven VMG.

strong upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 43
Share 21.0%
  • First 40.7
  • First 40
  • Grand Soleil 40

GLIDEFORM

Low-drag hull delivering smooth, efficient downwind acceleration.

weak upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 26
Share 12.7%
  • J-105
  • J-99
  • Farr 30

AEROBLADE

High-efficiency rig with sharp heel sensitivity and rapid trim response.

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 25
Share 12.2%
  • TP-52
  • Farr 40
  • XP-44

DEEPFRAME

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 25
Share 12.2%
  • J-109
  • First 36
  • J-120

STEELCORE

Central, stiff rigid-platform hull — stability-positive, hull-form-dominant, low heel-sensitivity.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 13
Share 6.3%
  • Sunfast 37
  • Dufour 40
  • Grand Soleil 37 BC

STEELFORM

Compact-rig, rigid platform delivering consistent, low-variance results.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 7
Share 3.4%
  • Bavaria CR 46
  • Dufour 41 Performance
  • Hanse 400 E

HEADFORCE

Upwind-biased pressure boat driving compact rigs through higher-drag hull forms.

strong upwind · weak reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 4
Share 2.0%
  • Fortuna 9
  • Miura
  • Elan 333

KEELFLEX

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 4
Share 2.0%
  • First 31.7
  • Express
  • First 31.7 LR

IRONWIND

Stiff, stable-drive platform with predictable load behavior.

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 2
Share 1.0%
  • J-80 OD
  • J-24
  • Melges 24 OD

STORMLINE

High-power, heel-sensitive platform with explosive potential when sailed flat.

moderate upwind · strong reaching · moderate downwind

Boats 1
Share 0.5%
  • Comfortina 32
  • Fenix
  • Aphrodite 101

GRAVITYRUN and AEROMAX lead the Fastnet fleet together — the heavy-momentum downwind family and the powered-up upwind hybrid carrying just under half the classified fleet between them — with GLIDEFORM third and the remaining eight families fanning out behind. The Fastnet pulls in a wider hull range than any narrower championship venue because the 695-mile point-to-point course mixes tidal-gate strategy, Channel light air, Celtic Sea exposure, and a final cross-Channel sprint. The downwind-leaning families (GRAVITYRUN plus GLIDEFORM) still carry a substantial structural rollup — consistent with a course whose return leg from the Rock typically runs broad to Cherbourg.

At a glance

Fastnet — structural profile.

Scope
205 boats
87 ORC-rated · 118 mapped-IRC
Top 3 archetypes
  1. GRAVITYRUN — 55 boats (26.8%)
  2. AEROMAX — 43 boats (21.0%)
  3. GLIDEFORM — 26 boats (12.7%)
Eleven canonical performance archetypes cluster the fleet by dimensional signature. See the full map →
Top designer cluster
Farr Design
59 boats (28.8%) — 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 2026-07-10

Classified fleet view · 205 of 205 classified · as of 2026-07-10

Fleet Stories

Fastnet fleet signature.

Designer Density

Farr Design anchors nearly three in every ten Fastnet hulls.

Farr Design leads the Fastnet drawing-board signature at 28.8% (59 of 205 boats) — the deepest single-designer share of any fleet on the platform. The Farr-drawn Beneteau First family carries the heart of the fleet: First 36.7 (21 boats), First 34.7 (17), First 40 (9), and First 40.7 (6) account for 53 boats together. Johnstone R (J/Boats) follows at 12.2% (25 boats), Judel-Vrolijk at 6.3% (13), and Jeppesen-Nielsen (X-Yachts) at 4.9% (10). The Farr signature — moderate displacement, crew-balanced cruiser-racer hulls — is the structural backbone of the GRAVITYRUN and AEROMAX archetype blocks at this race. Nowhere else on the FleetEdge platform does one drawing board concentrate the French-and-British club-racer base the way Farr Design does on the Fastnet course.

  • Farr Design: 59 boats · 28.8%
  • Beneteau First cluster (34.7 / 36.7 / 40 / 40.7): 53 boats
  • Johnstone R: 25 · Judel-Vrolijk: 13 · Jeppesen-Nielsen: 10
Complete data FleetEdge fleet-wide data
Archetype Density

GRAVITYRUN and AEROMAX lead a broad Fastnet field.

GRAVITYRUN leads the Fastnet fleet at 26.8% (55 of 205 classified boats), with AEROMAX close behind at 21.0% (43) and GLIDEFORM third at 12.7% (26). GRAVITYRUN is the heavy-mode momentum family — strong downwind power in sustained breeze, the hull type that converts on the broad return leg from the Rock; AEROMAX pairs strong upwind drive with moderate displacement, the family that holds the front when the Channel beats stay honest. The two leaders carry just under half the classified fleet, but below them the field fans out across the full archetype range: AEROBLADE and DEEPFRAME each hold 12.2%, and six more families share the tail. No single hull family commands the 695-mile point-to-point course, and the fleet that lines up at the Royal Yacht Squadron does not look the same from one edition to the next.

  • GRAVITYRUN: 55 boats · 26.8%
  • AEROMAX: 43 boats · 21.0%
  • GLIDEFORM: 26 boats · 12.7%
Complete data FleetEdge fleet-wide data
Popular Classes

The boats that define Fastnet racing.

First 36.7 (21)

The Beneteau Farr-drawn one-design racer-cruiser — the largest single class in the Fastnet 2025 fleet and the spine of the GRAVITYRUN archetype block.

First 34.7 (17)

The compact Beneteau Farr-First sister — a perennial sub-12m offshore mainstay with strong French and British shorthanded representation, a staple of the AEROMAX and GRAVITYRUN blocks.

Dufour 34 (10)

The Dufour Yachts performance racer-cruiser — central to the AEROMAX archetype block and a regular French-fleet Fastnet contender.

First 40 (9)

The Beneteau First 40 racer-cruiser — the larger Farr-drawn cousin spanning the AEROBLADE and GRAVITYRUN archetype blocks.

J-105 (8)

The Johnstone-designed J/Boats sportboat — an offshore-rated one-design with strong American and British representation, central to the GLIDEFORM archetype block.

Continue

Go deeper.

ORC World Fleet

The 369-boat international championship-circuit fleet — the parent context for FleetEdge’s cross-fleet comparative analytics.

Cowes Offshore Series

The RORC summer feeder series — 66 Fastnet 2025 boats also ran Cowes–Dinard–St Malo in the same season.

Rolex Middle Sea Race

The Mediterranean RORC classic — the peer 600-nm offshore race that shares 12 boats with the Fastnet 2025 fleet.

United Kingdom Racing

The largest national contingent — 69 of 205 Fastnet boats fly GBR sail numbers.

France Racing

The second-largest national contingent — 59 Fastnet boats fly FRA sail numbers, the deepest French offshore concentration on the page.

Fleet Archetypes

The FleetEdge archetype framework — the 11 performance archetypes.

Analyze the Fastnet.

695 nautical miles from the Solent to the Rock and back to Cherbourg. The 205-boat 2025 fleet, dissected on the same comparative axis.

Explore FleetEdge Explore UK Racing