Multi-Dimension Presence · Performance Verdict
BALTHASAR runs closest to allowance and leads both Comp Time and Crew.
BALTHASAR posts the best Comparative Time in the 44-boat comparative cohort at +61.30 sec/nm vs ORC and the best Crew Effectiveness at +59.80 sec/nm residual, a rare double-top on the two event-scoped families at the same running. The Maxi 72 KEELFLEX hull also clears the top-3 on Upwind VMG at 8.15 kn, a three-family presence earned inside a fleet where every boat in the comparative cohort finished slower than its ORC allowance (the leader is +61 sec/nm above par, the tailender is +282). This is a boat that sat inside its narrow KEELFLEX balance window for most of 606 nautical miles on a light-air edition — crew consistency, not hull volatility, decided the top of the leaderboard.
- BALTHASAR Comp Time: +61.30 sec/nm · 1st of 44
- BALTHASAR Crew Eff: +59.80 sec/nm · 1st of 44
- BALTHASAR Upwind VMG: 8.15 kn · 2nd of 58
Magnitude Gap · Multi-Dimension Presence
BLACK JACK 100: four-family presence from the longest hull.
BLACK JACK 100 sits top-3 on four of the five Headline families of the 2025 Middle Sea Race — 2nd Comparative Time at +67.81 sec/nm, 2nd Crew Effectiveness at +67.81, 1st Sail Drive Efficiency at 60.00 (15-point margin over Mr. J in second), and 1st Upwind VMG at 8.84 kn. The Super Maxi 100-footer converts sheer hull length into drive dominance and pointing supremacy across four dimensional boards in the same race. Sail Drive is the only family of the five where a single KEELFLEX hull is not also in the Comp Time top-3; BLACK JACK 100 carries both. A KEELFLEX platform at 100 feet of LOA in the steady breeze that ran at this running — the single most-dimensional signature on the page.
- BLACK JACK 100 Sail Drive: 60.00 · 1st of 44 (15 clear of 2nd)
- BLACK JACK 100 Upwind VMG: 8.84 kn · 1st of 58
- BLACK JACK 100 Comp Time: +67.81 sec/nm · 2nd of 44
Archetype-Conditions Dominance
KEELFLEX swept the 2025 leaderboards on a Scirocco-Levante edition.
Every top-3 position in the four event-scoped families of the 2025 Rolex Middle Sea Race was carried by a KEELFLEX hull. Comparative Time (BALTHASAR, BLACK JACK 100, WHISPER), Crew Effectiveness (same trio), Sail Drive Efficiency (BLACK JACK 100, Mr. J, JACKKNIFE), and Upwind VMG (BLACK JACK 100, BALTHASAR, WHISPER) all sit inside a single archetype. KEELFLEX is the narrow-window, precise-trim platform: fast when the crew can hold it in its balance window, volatile when the breeze shifts. The 2025 Scirocco-Levante pressure pattern let the top boats sit inside that window for most of the 606nm passage, and the result is a clean archetype sweep that is a race-day signature, not a course claim. The 2024 edition ran 40-knot squalls and delivered a different ranking entirely. On Heel Angle, the one dimension KEELFLEX did not sweep, AVANTI (DEEPFRAME) posted 10.3 degrees — eight degrees clear of HOBART in second — a reminder that deep-hull geometry is a different race inside the same fleet.
- KEELFLEX top-3: all 12 positions across Comp Time / Crew / Sail Drive / VMG
- AVANTI Heel Angle: 10.3° · 8.0° clear of HOBART (DEEPFRAME outlier)
- Comp Time fleet spread: 221.14 sec/nm (leader to tailender)