Rolex Sydney Hobart

Sydney Harbour to the Derwent — 628 nm through the Bass Strait

Sydney, Australia Hobart, Tasmania
72 boats 2 editions 628 nm 10 archetypes International event fleet · as of 2026-06-21
Kinship

Australia’s waters hold their own story.

Sydney Heads, the Tasman southerly, Storm Bay, the Derwent finish — the country page holds the broader picture.

 Hidden Shape

DEEPFRAME leads at 24.3% — a balanced fleet with no single dominant hull.

How the Rolex Sydney Hobart fleet clusters before the results arrive: deep-hull stiffness, light refined rigs, and power-efficiency hybrids share the 628-mile fleet almost evenly.
Character

Boxing Day. Six hundred and twenty-eight miles. Bass Strait between you and Hobart.

The Rolex Sydney Hobart is 628 nautical miles from Sydney Harbour to the Derwent River, through one of sailing’s most unpredictable bodies of water. The Bass Strait southerly buster can arrive at any hour, turning a summer race into a survival test where hull efficiency under storm loading and crew execution in degrading conditions separate the finishers from the retirements. The 1998 race defined a generation of offshore safety standards — five boats sank, six sailors died, only 44 of 115 starters finished in conditions that produced 80-knot gusts and 10-meter breaking waves — and the race carries that history forward in every edition. The 2025 edition (the most recent in the archive) carries 56 of the 72 fleet boats — the largest single-edition contingent inside the FleetEdge fleet, the edition MIN RIVER won on IRC overall corrected time, and the lens this hub anchors below.

FleetEdge tracks 72 boats in the Sydney Hobart fleet, and the DEEPFRAME archetype leads at 24.3% (17 of 70 classified) — the largest single share in a notably balanced fleet rather than a dominant one. The archive spans the 2019 edition and every running from 2021 through 2025; the current publication carries observations from the 2024 and 2025 races. DEEPFRAME is the deep-hull, stiff-platform family — drag-optimized flow that holds a powered line when the southerly buster fills in. AEROBLADE follows close behind at 22.9% (16 boats) — the refined-rig, light-and-agile platforms that reward quick acceleration and clean trim — with AEROMAX at 15.7% (11) and STEELFORM at 14.3% (10) rounding out a fleet where four archetype families each clear the 14% mark. The top three carry 62.9% of the classified fleet; no single recipe defines the start line. Two boats sit unclassified at the platform-boundary. Farr Design is the fleet’s most-common drawing board at 12.9% (9 of 70 classified) in a fleet spread across many design offices.

The fleet lives in the two recent editions. The 2025 running carries 56 of the 72 fleet boats (77.8%); the 2024 running carries 33 (45.8%); 17 boats raced both, and together the two editions account for every boat in the fleet. This is a race that draws the same campaigns back year after year — multi-year programs, family-owned hulls, and the long-running Bass Strait veterans that treat the race as a summer benchmark rather than a one-off entry. The Australian fleet anchors the entry list; international entries from the United States, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong thread through the entry list from the small divisions to the maxi end. In December 2026 the 81st edition starts Boxing Day under the same Bass Strait weather clock the fleet has been reading for eighty years.

Fleet DNA

How the Sydney Hobart fleet is built.

72 boats in the fleet — 65 ORC-rated and 7 IRC entries carried via the IRC-to-ORC mapping process. 70 classified across 10 archetypes, 2 unclassified at the platform-boundary.

The Sydney Hobart Fleet Signature

The Sydney Hobart fleet is a balanced offshore collective with a deep-hull leader rather than a single dominant recipe. DEEPFRAME holds the largest share at 24.3% (17 of 70 classified) — deep-hull, stiff platforms that hold a powered, drag-optimized line when the southerly buster fills in. AEROBLADE sits a step behind at 22.2% (16 boats) — the refined-rig, light-and-agile platforms tuned for quick acceleration and clean trim response — with AEROMAX at 15.3% (11 boats), the power-efficiency hybrids with strong upwind drive, and STEELFORM at 13.9% (10 boats), the heavy-displacement hulls with strong directional stability that suit the long Bass Strait passage. Together the top three archetypes carry 62.9% of the classified fleet — a spread, structurally diverse signature where four families each clear the 14% mark.

  • DEEPFRAME 24.3% · 17 boats
  • AEROBLADE 22.9% · 16 boats
  • AEROMAX 15.7% · 11 boats

Dimension emphasis: Comparative Time · RM / Displacement · Sail Drive · Crew Effect

Farr Design is the fleet’s most-common drawing board at 12.9% (9 of 70 classified) in a fleet spread across many design offices. Top class: Sydney 38 (3) — the only class with three or more hulls in the fleet. The 81st edition starts Boxing Day 2026 under the same Bass Strait weather clock the fleet has been reading for eighty years.

Complete data Latest published view

The full 10-archetype distribution.

DEEPFRAME

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 17
Share 23.6%
  • Swan 60
  • Nautor custom
  • ClubSwan 50

AEROBLADE

Light, agile platform optimized for quick acceleration and flat-water speed.

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 16
Share 22.2%
  • Class 40
  • IMOCA derivatives
  • Pogo 30

AEROMAX

Power-efficiency hybrid with strong upwind drive and moderate displacement.

strong upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 11
Share 15.3%
  • TP52
  • GP42
  • Melges IC37

STEELFORM

Heavy-displacement hull with strong directional stability.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 10
Share 13.9%
  • J/70
  • Farr 280
  • SB20

GRAVITYRUN

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 6
Share 8.3%
  • Swan 47
  • C&C 41
  • Sigma 38

GLIDEFORM

Low-drag hull with efficient upwind flow and moderate displacement.

weak upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 2
Share 2.8%
  • J/109
  • Dehler 38
  • Italia 11

HEADFORCE

High righting moment, upwind-biased hull that powers through chop.

strong upwind · weak reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 2
Share 2.8%
  • First 34.7
  • Grand Soleil 37
  • Sun Fast 3300

IRONWIND

Stiff, stable-drive platform with predictable load behavior.

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 2
Share 2.8%
  • J/122
  • XP-44
  • Swan 45

KEELFLEX

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 2
Share 2.8%
  • First 30
  • X-35
  • J/35

STORMLINE

Rough-water specialist with a hull shape optimized for steep, short waves.

moderate upwind · strong reaching · moderate downwind

Boats 2
Share 2.8%
  • J/111
  • J/121
  • Fast 40+

DEEPFRAME’s 24.3% share leads a balanced fleet, not a dominated one — four archetype families (DEEPFRAME, AEROBLADE 22.9%, AEROMAX 15.7%, STEELFORM 14.3%) each clear the 14% mark. The Sydney Hobart fleet says something specific about what the Bass Strait demands: deep-hull stiffness for the powered upwind line when the southerly buster fills in, refined-rig agility for the shifts, power-efficiency upwind drive, and heavy-displacement directional stability for the long Tasman passage. Ten archetype families are populated; one of the eleven canonical archetypes (STEELCORE) does not appear in this fleet at all.

Fleet Stories

Sydney Hobart signature.

Designer Density

Farr Design — the Sydney Hobart’s most-common drawing board.

Farr Design carries the largest single designer share in the Sydney Hobart fleet at 12.9% (9 of 70 classified boats). No designer dominates this fleet: the Farr board holds the most-common position rather than an anchor position, with the remaining 61 classified boats spread thinly across many design offices. That diversity is itself the signal — the Sydney Hobart entry list spans grand-prix custom builds, production racer-cruisers, and one-off offshore programs, and no single design office defines the start line the way a one-design circuit would.

  • Farr Design: 9 boats · 12.9% of classified
  • Remaining classified fleet: 61 boats across many design offices
  • Top class: Sydney 38 · 3 boats
Complete data Designer mix
Archetype Density

DEEPFRAME leads a balanced fleet at 24.3%.

DEEPFRAME carries the largest single share of the Sydney Hobart fleet at 24.3% (17 of 70 classified boats) — the leader of a notably balanced fleet rather than a dominant archetype. DEEPFRAME is the deep-hull, stiff-platform family — drag-optimized flow that holds a powered line when the Bass Strait southerly buster fills in. AEROBLADE follows close behind at 22.9% (16 boats), with AEROMAX at 15.7% (11) and STEELFORM at 14.3% (10): four families each clear the 14% mark. The Sydney Hobart fleet is structurally diverse — a long-running mix of deep-hull stiffness, refined-rig agility, power-efficiency upwind drive, and heavy-displacement stability suited to a 628-mile offshore passage.

  • DEEPFRAME: 17 boats · 24.3%
  • AEROBLADE: 16 boats · 22.9%
  • AEROMAX: 11 boats · 15.7% · STEELFORM 10 · 14.3%
Complete data Archetype mix
Popular Classes

The boats that define the Sydney Hobart fleet.

Sydney 38 (3)

The Murray Burns Dovel one-design Australian offshore class — the local-build cornerstone of the fleet, tuned for east-coast Australian conditions, and the only class with three or more hulls on this start line. The rest of the 72-boat fleet spreads across one-offs, custom builds, and single-entry production classes.

Selected Race Result

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2025 — Boxing Day 2025, 628 nm.

56 of 72 fleet boats competed in the 2025 edition (77.8% of the fleet, the largest single-edition contingent). One overall race, 628 nautical miles, offshore point-to-point scoring on the IRC overall handicap; 51 of the 56 carry comparative ORC observations. MIN RIVER took the overall corrected-time win. The 2025 entry-list archetype view (published nearest this race) is AEROBLADE-led: AEROBLADE 36.4% of the event-classified boats (20 of 55), DEEPFRAME 21.8% (12), GRAVITYRUN 20.0% (11). The Bass Strait conditions of the day are the variable above the structural baseline below.

Headlines

Dimension leaders — the 56-boat Sydney Hobart 2025 fleet.

Fleet-relative leaders from the 2025 race. Finish order comes from the published IRC overall standings. Comparative Time is the corrected sec/nm delta against the boat’s ORC median allowance — lower (more negative) means the boat sailed faster than its rating expects. The Crew Effect residual is the sec/nm gap between the boat’s actual pace and its archetype-expected pace — negative means the crew beat the boat’s archetype-expected pace (stronger execution); positive means it sailed below that baseline. 51 of the 56 race boats carry the full comparison set.

IRC Overall Finish

1. MIN RIVER · 1st
2. LEON · 2nd
3. LOVE & WAR · 3rd
Cohort 56 boats

Comparative Time — sec/nm vs ORC

1. ELLA · −93.88
2. GIZMO · −66.78
3. SUPERNOVA · −56.53
Cohort 51 scored

Crew Effect Residual — sec/nm

1. ELLA · −90.1
2. GIZMO · −72.6
3. MIN RIVER · −58.1
Cohort 51 scored

RM / Displacement

1. LUCKY · 111.2
2. SHK SCALLYWAG · 105.1
3. ADVANTEDGE · 55.2
Cohort cohort-relative

Sail Drive Index

1. ARAGON · 43
2. TOECUTTER 3 · 42
3. BACK 2 BLACK · 41
Cohort cohort-relative

Archetype Lead

1. AEROBLADE · 20 boats
2. DEEPFRAME · 12 boats
3. GRAVITYRUN · 11 boats
Cohort 55 classified
Stories

What the 2025 race told us.

Championship Citation

MIN RIVER — Rolex Sydney Hobart 2025 Winner, IRC Overall

MIN RIVER (AUS888, JPK 10.30) finished first of the 56-boat fleet in the published IRC overall corrected-time standings of the 2025 Rolex Sydney Hobart. The Jacques Valer-drawn JPK 10.30 came out of IRC Division 6 — the smallest division on the start line, where MIN RIVER was first of the fleet’s 10 Division 6 entries — and beat every larger boat in the race on handicap. The comparative-time lens agrees with the standings: MIN RIVER converted at −55.5 sec/nm against the ORC median allowance over the 628-mile track, fourth-best conversion in the fleet. A compact, efficient 34-footer winning the Tattersall Cup edition carried by this fleet is the clearest physics-to-result conversion on the page.

  • IRC Overall: 1st of 56 cohort boats · finish FIN
  • Division 6: 1st of 10 cohort entries
  • Comparative time: −55.5 sec/nm vs ORC median
Complete data · published standings Rolex Sydney Hobart 2025
Class Cluster

Division 6 took three of the top four corrected-time slots.

The smallest division owned the front of the 2025 IRC overall standings: MIN RIVER (1st), LOVE & WAR (3rd), and TOUCAN (4th) all sailed out of IRC Division 6. Only LEON — the J/109 from Division 5 that won the Rolex Fastnet Race 2025 overall earlier the same season — broke the cluster at 2nd. Ten of the fleet’s 56 boats raced in Division 6, and they concentrated at the top of the corrected-time table: small, efficient hulls converting their handicaps over 628 miles while the grand-prix end of the fleet chased line honors.

  • Division 6 in the top 4: 3 of 4 slots (ranks 1, 3, 4)
  • Division 6 cohort entries: 10 of 56
  • The outsider: LEON (Division 5, J/109) · 2nd
Complete data · published standings Rolex Sydney Hobart 2025
Magnitude Gap

ELLA: 94 sec/nm under the ORC median from 18th overall.

ELLA (Etchells, AEROMAX) posted the fleet’s best comparative-time conversion at −93.9 sec/nm against the ORC median allowance — 27.1 sec/nm clear of GIZMO (−66.8) in second. That is the widest margin on any dimension table for this event. The standings tell a different story: ELLA finished 18th in the IRC overall corrected-time table. The two lenses measure different things — IRC overall is the scored race result under the IRC handicap; the comparative-time delta measures how far the elapsed pace beat the boat’s own ORC median allowance over the 628-mile track. ELLA sailed dramatically faster than its ORC paper number says it should, and the IRC scoring absorbed most of that edge. The gap between the two tables is the rating story of this running.

  • ELLA comparative time: −93.9 sec/nm · 1st of 51 scored
  • Margin over 2nd: 27.1 sec/nm (GIZMO −66.8)
  • IRC overall finish: 18th — different lens, different table
Single race observed · partial coverage FleetEdge Comparative Time
Composition Shift

The front of the standings ran heavier than the entry list.

The 2025 entry list (in the FleetEdge view published nearest the race) was AEROBLADE-led at 36.4% against DEEPFRAME at 21.8% — but the front of the corrected-time table inverted that order. Among the top 20 IRC overall finishers with archetype assignments, the deep-hull DEEPFRAME platforms converted to corrected-time results at a higher rate than the light refined-rig group that led the entry list. At this running, drag-optimized deep-hull boats moved up the table while the AEROBLADE majority of the start line did not convert at the same rate — a result-table shift against the entry-list signature, driven by the conditions of the day rather than a change in what raced. The current fleet view sits differently again: across the full 72-boat fleet today, DEEPFRAME holds the largest share at 24.3% with AEROBLADE close behind at 22.9%.

  • 2025 entry list (vintage view): AEROBLADE 36.4% · DEEPFRAME 21.8%
  • Front of the result table: deep-hull platforms over-converted relative to entry-list share
  • Current fleet view: DEEPFRAME 24.3% · AEROBLADE 22.9%
Complete data Race group vs fleet
Race Archetypes

55 boats classified in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2025.

Archetypes as published 2026-06-08 — the FleetEdge view nearest this event.

55 of the boats that raced the 2025 edition carry a FleetEdge archetype assignment at this vintage. AEROBLADE leads, with DEEPFRAME and GRAVITYRUN close behind — a deep-hull-and-momentum core sitting under the light-platform majority. The distribution below is the FleetEdge view published nearest the 2025 race.

AEROBLADE

Light, agile platform optimized for quick acceleration and flat-water speed.

Boats 20
Share 36.4%

DEEPFRAME

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

Boats 12
Share 21.8%

GRAVITYRUN

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

Boats 11
Share 20.0%

GLIDEFORM

Low-drag hull with efficient upwind flow and moderate displacement.

Boats 3
Share 5.5%

STORMLINE

Rough-water specialist with a hull shape optimized for steep, short waves.

Boats 3
Share 5.5%

HEADFORCE

High righting moment, upwind-biased hull that powers through chop.

Boats 2
Share 3.6%

STEELFORM

Heavy-displacement hull with strong directional stability.

Boats 2
Share 3.6%

AEROMAX

Power-efficiency hybrid with strong upwind drive and moderate displacement.

Boats 1
Share 1.8%

IRONWIND

Stiff, stable-drive platform with predictable load behavior.

Boats 1
Share 1.8%
Continue

Go deeper.

Fastnet

The peer RORC offshore classic — 695 nm from Cowes to Cherbourg, the structural counterpart to the Sydney Hobart on the European side.

Australia

The Australian country page — the broader national fleet that the Sydney Hobart draws from, with fleet context across the country’s racing programs.

Fleet Archetypes

The FleetEdge archetype framework — 11 performance archetypes, the lens this hub uses to read the fleet signature.

ORC World Fleet

The 363-boat world-traveling fleet — the cross-fleet comparative lens above the IRC and ORC event hubs.

Ocean Intelligence

The HYCOM ocean-current reanalysis layer — the inshore-or-offshore EAC decision that separates hours, not minutes, on the Sydney Hobart track.

IRC Racing

All six IRC offshore classics in one analytical framework — the parent hub for the Sydney Hobart, Fastnet, Middle Sea Race, Caribbean 600, Cowes Offshore, and Transatlantic.

Analyze the Sydney Hobart.

628 nm through the Bass Strait. Every dimension measured.

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