Championship Citation
SUMMER STORM — ORC World Champion, Class 0.
USA-520 SUMMER STORM (TP-52, Judel-Vrolijk, AEROBLADE) won the Class 0 Maxi title at the 2026 ORC World Championship in Sorrento with 18.5 points — 1st of 11 boats in the maxi class. The American TP-52 program led VUDU (AUS-52, Botin TP-52, AEROBLADE, 21 pts) by 2.5 points after discards, with ROCKETNIKKA (ITA-51001, Botin M Wallyrocket 51, AEROBLADE, 21 pts) third on countback. SUMMER STORM also surfaced inside the top three of two fleet Headlines simultaneously — 3rd in Upwind VMG-12kt at 6.93 kt and 2nd in Downwind VMG-12kt at 8.60 kt across the 92-boat classified cohort. The Class 0 podium is an all-AEROBLADE cluster on three different boards (Judel-Vrolijk, Botin, Botin M) and three different flags (USA, AUS, ITA).
- SUMMER STORM Class 0: 1st of 11 · 18.5 pts
- 2nd: VUDU (TP-52, AEROBLADE, AUS) · 21 pts
- 3rd: ROCKETNIKKA (Wallyrocket 51, AEROBLADE, ITA) · 21 pts
Championship Citation
RAN — ORC World Champion, Class A.
SWE-41 RAN (Carkeek 40+, Carkeek, AEROBLADE) won Class A with 16.5 points — 1st of 23 boats. Niklas Zennström’s Swedish program led LISA R (GBR-6255N, Ker J Ker-46, AEROBLADE, 27 pts) by 10.5 points and SELENE (NED-7842, Frers G Swan 42 Club, AEROBLADE, 34 pts) by 17.5 points. RAN’s 10.5-point winning margin was the widest on the maxi/grand-prix side of the championship — second overall only to ROBE DA MAT’s 20-point Class C gap — and the Class A podium is again an all-AEROBLADE cluster — three different drawing boards (Carkeek, Ker J, Frers G) and three different flags (SWE, GBR, NED) on the light, agile racing-platform archetype. RAN is the only boat in the FleetEdge analytical record to win the same class at the ORC World Championship in two consecutive years — Class A at Tallinn 2025 and Class A at Sorrento 2026.
- RAN Class A: 1st of 23 · 16.5 pts
- 2nd: LISA R (Ker-46, AEROBLADE, GBR) · 27 pts
- 3rd: SELENE (Swan 42 Club, AEROBLADE, NED) · 34 pts
Championship Citation
KATARA — ORC World Champion, Class B.
ARG-5900 KATARA (Pg-390 by PGYD, DEEPFRAME) won Class B with 18 points — 1st of 24 boats. Technonicol (SMR-1023, Jeppesen-Nielsen X-41 Mod, AEROBLADE) followed at 23 points, and WB IX (ITA-41005, X-Yachts Xr-41, AEROBLADE) was third at 26 points. KATARA is the most internationally-sourced trophy of the four classes — an Argentinian-flagged program on an Argentinian production-racer hull beating two X-Yachts-family platforms from the European mainstream. It is also the only DEEPFRAME on the Class B podium at this vintage — the deep-hull stiff platform won the class over two hulls that read AEROBLADE in the FleetEdge view published nearest the event.
- KATARA Class B: 1st of 24 · 18 pts
- 2nd: Technonicol (X-41 Mod, AEROBLADE, SMR) · 23 pts
- 3rd: WB IX (Xr-41, AEROBLADE, ITA) · 26 pts
Championship Citation
ROBE DA MAT — ORC World Champion, Class C.
ITA-211 ROBE DA MAT (Mat-11 by Polli M, DEEPFRAME) won Class C with 19 points — 1st of 36 boats in the championship’s largest fleet. CHISUM (ITA-18249, Mills M Cape 31, GLIDEFORM) followed at 39 points and SEASE (ITA-3040, Farr Design Farr 30, GLIDEFORM) third at 42 points. All three Class C podium boats were Italian-flagged on home water, and ROBE DA MAT’s 20-point margin was the widest of the four class titles — the championship’s one clean runaway. The deep-hull stiff-platform DEEPFRAME hull took the biggest class over two low-drag GLIDEFORM designs, and the trophy stayed in Italy at the production-racer heart of the grid.
- ROBE DA MAT Class C: 1st of 36 · 19 pts
- 2nd: CHISUM (Cape 31, GLIDEFORM, ITA) · 39 pts
- 3rd: SEASE (Farr 30, GLIDEFORM, ITA) · 42 pts
Multi-Champion Cluster
Two archetypes split the trophies: AEROBLADE on the maxi end, DEEPFRAME on the production end.
The 2026 ORC World Championship’s four class titles split cleanly between two archetypes — AEROBLADE took Class 0 (SUMMER STORM) and Class A (RAN), DEEPFRAME took Class B (KATARA) and Class C (ROBE DA MAT). The split tracks the boat-type structure of the championship: AEROBLADE’s wins came at the maxi and grand-prix end where light, agile racing platforms (TP-52, Carkeek 40+) dominate; DEEPFRAME’s wins came at the production-racer end where deep-hull stiff platforms (Pg-390, Mat-11) carry the larger fields. Four boards (Judel-Vrolijk, Carkeek, PGYD, Polli M), four hull sizes, four flags (USA, SWE, ARG, ITA), two archetypes. AEROBLADE and DEEPFRAME together account for 53.3% of the classified cohort (49 of 92 boats) and 100% of the trophies; AEROMAX — the family that led the Tallinn 2025 grid at the FleetEdge view nearest that event — is Sorrento’s third-largest archetype at 18.5% and won no class.
- Class 0: SUMMER STORM (TP-52, AEROBLADE, USA) · Class A: RAN (Carkeek 40+, AEROBLADE, SWE)
- Class B: KATARA (Pg-390, DEEPFRAME, ARG) · Class C: ROBE DA MAT (Mat-11, DEEPFRAME, ITA)
- Two-archetype trophy split: 2 AEROBLADE + 2 DEEPFRAME · 53.3% of the classified cohort, 100% of titles
Magnitude Gap
MELAGODO leads the Sorrento allowance board — nearly 75 sec/nm clear of the field median.
ITA-15426 MELAGODO (First 34.7, Farr Design, GRAVITYRUN) led the 92-boat Sorrento Comparative Time board at −20.93 sec/nm vs ORC median — nearly 75 sec/nm clear of the field median of +53.69. The runner-up, CATTIVA COMPAGNIA (LTU-2399, Polli M Italia 11.98, DEEPFRAME), came in at −18.12 sec/nm, with LADY DAY 998 (ITA-98189, Polli M Italia 9.98, DEEPFRAME) third at −17.44 — a board podium drawn from two archetype families. Only 12 of the 92 classified boats finished the week faster than their rating expects, and none of the four class champions is among them — a reminder that the championship scoring rewarded consistency across 32 starts rather than single-dimension pace.
- 1st: MELAGODO · −20.93 sec/nm · GRAVITYRUN
- 2nd: CATTIVA COMPAGNIA · −18.12 sec/nm · 3rd: LADY DAY 998 · −17.44 sec/nm
- Field median: +53.69 sec/nm · 12 of 92 boats negative
Multi-Dimension Presence
SUMMER STORM stacks a Class 0 title on top of two VMG-12kt podiums.
USA-520 SUMMER STORM (TP-52, Judel-Vrolijk, AEROBLADE) won Class 0 with 18.5 points AND surfaced in the top three of both VMG-12kt fleet dimensions — 3rd in Upwind VMG at 6.93 kt and 2nd in Downwind VMG at 8.60 kt (level with FINAL FINAL), across the 92-boat classified cohort. The American TP-52 program is the only Sorrento class winner with a top-three placement on two separate Headline dimensions. Class podium plus dual-VMG presence is the textbook AEROBLADE pattern in maxi racing — light, agile, balanced upwind and downwind, with the points to convert it.
- SUMMER STORM Class 0: 1st of 11 · 18.5 pts
- Upwind VMG-12kt: 6.93 kt · 3rd of 92
- Downwind VMG-12kt: 8.60 kt · 2nd of 92, tied
Composition Shift
Two different fleets contest the same championship one year apart.
The Tallinn 2025 and Sorrento 2026 ORC World Championship grids ran different archetype distributions — each read at the FleetEdge view published nearest its event. Tallinn 2025 was AEROMAX-led (39.3% of 61 classified boats) with DEEPFRAME second (18.0%) and AEROBLADE third (16.4%) — power-efficiency hybrids ahead of the deep-hull and light-platform families. Sorrento 2026 flips the order: AEROBLADE leads (33.7% of 92 classified) with DEEPFRAME second (19.6%) and AEROMAX third (18.5%). The popular classes tell the same story — X-41, First 34.7, and Xr-41 topped the 2025 grid; TP-52, Swan 45, and Italia 11.98 top 2026. The trophies moved with the entry list: two archetypes split Tallinn’s three classes (DEEPFRAME×2 + AEROMAX×1), and two split Sorrento’s four (AEROBLADE×2 + DEEPFRAME×2) — DEEPFRAME is the only archetype to win at both editions. Two structurally different championships under the same rating regime, one year apart.
- 2025 (Tallinn, 61 classified) lead archetypes: AEROMAX 39.3% · DEEPFRAME 18.0% · AEROBLADE 16.4%
- 2026 (Sorrento, 92 classified) lead archetypes: AEROBLADE 33.7% · DEEPFRAME 19.6% · AEROMAX 18.5%
- Trophy archetype split: 2025 DEEPFRAME×2 + AEROMAX vs 2026 AEROBLADE×2 + DEEPFRAME×2
Year-Over-Year Continuity
RAN wins Class A twice — Tallinn 2025 to Sorrento 2026.
SWE-41 RAN won Class A at the 2025 ORC Worlds in Tallinn and the 2026 ORC Worlds in Sorrento — back-to-back class titles at consecutive World Championships, on the same Carkeek 40+ hull. Niklas Zennström’s program is the only boat in the FleetEdge analytical record to win the same class at the ORC World Championship in two consecutive years. The two championships could not have been more different — Baltic vs Mediterranean, 8 boats in the class vs 23, production racer-cruisers vs championship-grade hulls. The boat and crew rated equally against both fields. FleetEdge’s archetype read moved with the boat’s certificate between editions: the view published nearest Tallinn 2025 classifies RAN as DEEPFRAME, while the view nearest Sorrento 2026 reads AEROBLADE — same hull, two vintage-true labels a year apart.
- RAN 2025 (Tallinn): 1st of 8 Class A · 12 pts · DEEPFRAME at the view nearest the event
- RAN 2026 (Sorrento): 1st of 23 Class A · 16.5 pts · AEROBLADE at the view nearest the event
- Same boat, same crew — two consecutive World titles