Rolex Fastnet Race

The 210-boat 2025 fleet — Solent to Cherbourg via the Fastnet Rock.

Cowes, UK Cherbourg, France
210 boats 1 race 695 nm 20 countries International event fleet · as of 2026-09-02
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

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

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 210 boats in the Fastnet 2025 fleet — ORC-rated hulls and IRC-rated hulls together, analyzed through the same physics framework. Ninety-three carry ORC measurement certificates; 117 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 front of the fleet is a tight contest of big platforms. LEANRUN leads at 21.4% (45 boats), the cruiser-racer core of the entry list. HEFTLINE is second at 21.0% (44 boats), the compact, level-postured family with a measured upwind advantage in race results, and AEROFORCE is third at 16.7% (35 boats). The leading three hold 124 of the 210 boats, and the order stays tight behind them — AEROSTREAM at 14.8% (31 boats), the towering-scale family whose race results read downwind-neutral, and AEROCORE at 13.8% (29 boats) hold the middle band, while LEANFORCE, KEELRUN, and SPARKFLEX close the tail. The Fastnet still draws a wider hull range than a single-venue championship; at this cut no archetype holds even a quarter of the entry. The geographic backbone is British and French — GBR sail numbers form the largest national bloc with FRA close behind, and Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway carry the secondary tier across 20 countries in total. The Fastnet 2025 fleet also overlaps heavily with the Cowes Offshore Series — 68 of the 210 boats double-ran Cowes–Dinard–St Malo, and 52 ran the Myth of Malham, signaling a tightly scheduled UK and French offshore season around the centenary race.

Event cohort view · 210 boats · as of 2026-09-02

Selected Race Result

Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 — Overall.

All 210 of the 210 fleet boats competed. 695 nautical miles point-to-point, Cowes to Cherbourg via the Fastnet Rock. One race, IRC overall scoring across nine IRC divisions. 26 July 2025. 93 boats carry full ORC measurement; 117 are IRC-rated and projected as ORC-mapped IRC entries on the same comparative-time axis.

Headlines

Dimension leaders — the 210-boat Fastnet fleet.

Cohort-relative leaders from the Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 (26 July 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). 92 of the 210 boats carry comparative-time records; the current published view carries no crew-residual records for this fleet at this event. 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 210 boats

Comparative Time

1. FREYA · −99.5 s/nm
2. LEON · −77.8 s/nm
3. TAGAN IV · −66.2 s/nm
Cohort 92 with data

Crew Residual

No crew-residual reading is published for any Fastnet boat at this event in the current view. The full execution decomposition for each boat is private to its team in the Team Diagnostic.

Cohort 0 with data

Archetype Lead

1. AEROSTREAM · 26
2. AEROCORE · 15
3. HEFTLINE · 12
Cohort 93 classified

Nation Concentration

1. GBR · 72
2. FRA · 61
3. GER · 20
Cohort 20 countries

Designer Concentration

1. Farr Design · 64
2. Johnstone R · 21
3. Judel-Vrolijk · 12
Cohort 210 boats
Stories

What the Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 told us.

Championship Citation

LEON — Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 Winner, IRC 2 and IRC Overall

LEON AEROCORE, the French JPK-1050 (FRA 53524), won the 40-boat IRC 2 division and the Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 overall on corrected time — a mid-size division boat taking the whole event 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 — among the largest comparative-time deltas in the comparison group, in its 99th percentile and second only to FREYA’s. An AEROCORE hull — the large-scale, upright-posture, tender-reserve family — sailed past its platform expectation from the Solent to Cherbourg. The counterpoint sits at the top of the rating band: SHK SCALLYWAG, the Super Maxi rated at an IRC TCC of 1.95, posted the fastest elapsed time of any named finisher in the published standings — and corrected to 225th overall, 6th of 9 in IRC Super Zero. That is corrected time doing its job: at the highest ratings only an enormous real-time margin wins on handicap, and this year the race was won from IRC 2, not from the maxi division.

Source: published Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 standings — IRC 2 and IRC Super Zero divisions.

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 AEROCORE (JPK-1050) finished first and LANN AEL 3 LEANRUN (First 35, FRA 346) second — two French production cruiser-racers ahead of every grand-prix program in the 210-boat FleetEdge fleet. Both sailed out of the same 40-boat IRC 2 division, and the cluster runs deeper than the podium: 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
  • Both from IRC 2: 1st and 2nd of 40
Complete data Published event standings
Archetype-Conditions Dominance

AEROSTREAM stacked the classified big-boat divisions at this running of the race.

At this running of the Fastnet, read through the FleetEdge archetype view published nearest the race, AEROSTREAM carried the second-largest classified family — 26 of 93 boats (28.0%), one behind AEROCORE’s 27 — and it owned the grand-prix end of the entry: every classified hull in IRC Zero and in the leading Admiral’s Cup division carries the AEROSTREAM assignment, along with the lone classified Super Zero maxi and three of six in the second Admiral’s Cup division. That grip on the big-boat classes is composition, not destiny: in the conditions that prevailed on the 2025 course the overall prize still went to an AEROCORE hull sailing out of IRC 2. The towering, rig-powered platforms convert when the beats out of the Solent and back across the Channel stay honest — 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.

  • AEROSTREAM at this vintage: 26 of 93 · 28.0%
  • IRC Zero: 5 of 5 classified · Admiral’s Cup 1: 4 of 4 · Admiral’s Cup 2: 3 of 6
  • Overall winner: LEON · AEROCORE · IRC 2
Complete data Archetype groups
Magnitude Gap

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

BEAU IDEAL AEROCORE, 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 from the Admiral’s Cup 2 division. Over 695 miles that delta compounds to better than seven and a half hours against a median-pace boat — an AEROCORE platform running near the top of its conversion envelope. The gap sits in the 91st percentile of the fleet’s comparison group on a single-race basis — the second-strongest big-boat magnitude signal in the 2025 publication, behind only GINKGO in the same division.

Complete data FleetEdge Comparative Time
Race Archetypes

93 boats classified in the Rolex Fastnet Race 2025.

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

Of the 210-boat fleet, 93 carry a FleetEdge archetype assignment at this vintage — the FleetEdge view published nearest the 2025 race. The classified group leans powered-up: AEROCORE leads with 27 boats and AEROSTREAM sits one behind at 26 — each just over a quarter of the classified group — with HEFTLINE next at 12 and LEANRUN at 11 in the grid below. What the entry structure adds is a stacked top end — the classified big-boat divisions, IRC Zero and the leading Admiral’s Cup class, are AEROSTREAM throughout, while the overall winner sailed an AEROCORE hull out of IRC 2.

AEROCORE

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

Boats 27
Share 29.0%

AEROSTREAM

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

Boats 26
Share 28.0%

HEFTLINE

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

Boats 12
Share 12.9%

LEANRUN

— upwind-neutral in race results.

Boats 11
Share 11.8%

LEANFORCE

Compact scale — measured downwind advantage in race results.

Boats 7
Share 7.5%

KEELRUN

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

Boats 5
Share 5.4%

AEROFORCE

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

Boats 5
Share 5.4%

International event fleet · 210 boats · as of 2026-09-02

Fleet DNA

How the Fastnet fleet is built.

210 boats in the fleet. 93 ORC-rated and 117 mapped IRC entries attributed across eight archetypes; 210 classified.

The Rolex Fastnet Fleet Signature

The Fastnet fleet is led from the front by its big platforms. LEANRUN leads at 21.4% (45 boats), large-scale hulls on an upright posture — the offshore cruiser-racer core of the entry list. HEFTLINE is second at 21.0% (44 boats), the compact, level-postured family with a measured upwind advantage in its race results. AEROFORCE is third at 16.7% (35 boats). The order stays tight behind the podium: AEROSTREAM at 14.8% (31 boats) — the towering-scale, stiff-reserve family whose race results read downwind-neutral — and AEROCORE at 13.8% (29 boats) hold the middle band, with LEANFORCE at 8.1% (17 boats), KEELRUN at 2.9% (6 boats), and SPARKFLEX closing the tail.

  • LEANRUN 21.4% · 45 boats
  • HEFTLINE 21.0% · 44 boats
  • AEROFORCE 16.7% · 35 boats

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

Farr Design anchors the drawing-board signature at 30.5% (64 boats) — one of the deepest single-designer concentrations on the platform. The Beneteau First 34.7 (25 boats), First 36.7 (21), First 40 (9), and First 40.7 (6) carry the heart of the Farr-drawn entry list, and the Johnstone-designed J-105 (10 boats) leads the classes outside the Farr stable. The whole fleet participated in Rolex Fastnet Race 2025; 68 of those boats also ran Cowes–Dinard–St Malo in the same UK offshore season.

Complete data Latest published view

The full 8-archetype distribution across 11 measured slots.

LEANRUN

— upwind-neutral in race results.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · weak downwind

Boats 45
Share 21.4%
  • First 36.7
  • J-109
  • First 35

HEFTLINE

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

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · moderate downwind

Boats 44
Share 21.0%
  • 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 35
Share 16.7%
  • 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 31
Share 14.8%
  • TP-52
  • XP-44
  • Farr 40

AEROCORE

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

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 29
Share 13.8%
  • First 36
  • Bavaria CR 46
  • J-120

LEANFORCE

Compact scale — measured downwind advantage in race results.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 17
Share 8.1%
  • Fortuna 9
  • Mat 10.10
  • Aphrodite 101

KEELRUN

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

strong upwind · strong reaching · strong downwind

Boats 6
Share 2.9%
  • 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 3
Share 1.4%
  • J-80 OD
  • J-24
  • J-70 ONE DESIGN

LEANRUN leads the Fastnet fleet, with HEFTLINE one boat behind it and AEROFORCE third, while AEROSTREAM and AEROCORE hold the middle band. 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. That range shows up as breadth at the front rather than a runaway leader: the four leading archetypes each hold more than 14% of the entry, and no family reaches a quarter of the fleet.

At a glance

Fastnet — structural profile.

Scope
210 boats
93 ORC-rated · 117 mapped-IRC
Top 3 archetypes
  1. LEANRUN — 45 boats (21.4%)
  2. HEFTLINE — 44 boats (21.0%)
  3. AEROFORCE — 35 boats (16.7%)
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
64 boats (30.5%) — 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 · 210 of 210 classified · as of 2026-09-02

Fleet Stories

Fastnet fleet signature.

Designer Density

Farr Design anchors three in every ten Fastnet hulls.

Farr Design leads the Fastnet drawing-board signature at 30.5% (64 of 210 boats) — one of the deepest single-designer concentrations on the platform. The Farr-drawn Beneteau First family carries the heart of the fleet: First 34.7 (25 boats), First 36.7 (21), First 40 (9), and First 40.7 (6) account for 61 boats together, and the Johnstone-designed J-105 (10 boats) is the largest class outside the Farr stable. The Farr signature — moderate displacement, crew-balanced cruiser-racer hulls — is the structural backbone of the fleet’s mid-size divisions. 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: 64 boats · 30.5%
  • Beneteau First cluster (34.7 / 36.7 / 40 / 40.7): 61 boats
  • Largest non-Farr class: J-105 · 10 boats
Complete data FleetEdge fleet-wide data
Archetype Density

A tight front rank, led by LEANRUN.

LEANRUN leads the Fastnet fleet at 21.4% (45 of 210 boats), with HEFTLINE second at 21.0% (44 boats) and AEROFORCE third at 16.7% (35 boats). The LEANRUN and HEFTLINE groups at the front are the cruiser-racer core the Fastnet has drawn for a century; the towering AEROSTREAM platforms read downwind-neutral in race results. The order stays tight past the podium — AEROSTREAM at 14.8% (31 boats) and AEROCORE at 13.8% (29 boats) hold the middle band — while LEANFORCE at 8.1% (17 boats), KEELRUN at 2.9% (6 boats), and SPARKFLEX at 1.4% (3 boats) close the tail. The 695-mile point-to-point course sets a broad, flat front rank over a varied chasing field.

  • LEANRUN: 45 boats · 21.4%
  • HEFTLINE: 44 boats · 21.0%
  • AEROFORCE: 35 boats · 16.7%
Complete data FleetEdge fleet-wide data
Popular Classes

The boats that define Fastnet racing.

First 34.7 (25)

The compact Beneteau Farr-drawn racer-cruiser — the largest single class in the Fastnet 2025 fleet, a sub-12m offshore mainstay with strong French and British shorthanded representation.

First 36.7 (21)

The Beneteau Farr-drawn one-design racer-cruiser — a fixture of Channel offshore racing and the second-largest class in the fleet.

J-105 (10)

The Johnstone-designed J/Boats sportboat — an offshore-rated one-design with strong American and British representation.

First 40 (9)

The Beneteau First 40 racer-cruiser — the larger Farr-drawn cousin and a repeat RORC offshore campaigner.

First 40.7 (6)

The Farr-drawn First 40.7 — the long-serving IRC crossover that still anchors club offshore programs.

Continue

Go deeper.

ORC World Fleet

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

Cowes Offshore Series

The RORC summer feeder series — 68 Fastnet 2025 boats also ran Cowes–Dinard–St Malo in the same season.

Rolex Middle Sea Race

The Mediterranean RORC classic — the peer 606-nm offshore race that overlaps the Fastnet 2025 fleet.

United Kingdom Racing

The largest national contingent in the Fastnet fleet — the race’s home waters and the RORC’s base.

France Racing

The second-largest national contingent — the French offshore school that took the top two steps of the 2025 standings.

Fleet Archetypes

The FleetEdge archetype framework — the eight performance archetypes of the 2026 census.

Analyze the Fastnet.

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

Explore FleetEdge Explore UK Racing