RORC Transatlantic Race 2026

Marina Lanzarote, Canary Islands — 11 January 2026

Atlantic crossing IRC offshore classic 3,000 nm trade-wind passage
14 boats 2 editions 2 races 16 observations International event fleet · as of 2026-06-21
Kinship

An Atlantic-to-Caribbean offshore campaign.

9 of the 14 Transatlantic fleet boats also race the RORC Caribbean 600 — the crossing feeds the 600 nm island loop that follows.

 Hidden Shape

AEROBLADE leads at 42.9%.
The ocean-passage signature on a 3,000 nm trade-wind crossing.

6 light, agile racing platforms lead a 14-boat fleet; GRAVITYRUN follows at 21.4% and AEROMAX at 14.3% — downwind momentum and high-power reaching on the same start line.
Character

Three thousand miles of weather routing, biennial by tradition.

The RORC Transatlantic Race is approximately 3,000 nautical miles from Marina Lanzarote in the Canary Islands to Antigua in the West Indies — the race where routing decisions in the first 48 hours often determine the outcome more than any other factor, and where the fleet's full performance signature is visible across a week at sea. The two-deep-low-pressure forecast that forced the 2024 course amendment 48 hours before the start, and Lucky's 2025 monohull record of 7 days 19 hours, both make the point: this is a race where the weather-routing decision is the race, and where a boat's hull, rig, and crew all have to hold their line across a week of trade-wind reaching, gybe-ready squall transitions, and the long descent into the Caribbean approach.

FleetEdge tracks 14 boats across two editions in the archive — 2025 and 2026 — with the 2026 edition (11 January 2026) fielding 10 of those 14 boats on the start line. The fleet is small by FleetEdge standards: 8 ORC-native boats plus 6 mapped IRC projections built through FleetEdge's IRC-to-ORC mapping, each projection matched to its ORC design-family equivalent by hull dimensions and run with the full ORC physics profile. All 14 are archetype-classified. The fleet signature is AEROBLADE-led at 42.9% (6 boats), with GRAVITYRUN at 21.4% (3 boats) and AEROMAX at 14.3% (2 boats) behind it, then a single DEEPFRAME, HEADFORCE, and KEELFLEX hull at 7.1% each — an ocean-passage signature where light reaching speed leads, heavy-mode downwind momentum and high-power reaching follow, and the fleet thins to single-hull entries past the top three.

The RORC Transatlantic is also a feeder for the Caribbean offshore winter — 9 of the 14 fleet boats (64.3%) also race the RORC Caribbean 600 in at least one edition. The overlap is structural rather than coincidental: programs that commit to the 3,000 nm Atlantic crossing in January arrive in Antigua positioned for the 600 nm island loop in February on the same boat and the same crew. INO NOIR and ROCK'N'ROLL have raced both Transatlantic editions in the analytic record; LUCKY, Spirit of Helsinki, HASPA HAMBURG, and PATA NEGRA paired the 2025 Transatlantic with the 2025 Caribbean 600; NEOJIVARO, JACKKNIFE, and TEAM 42 stay in the Atlantic-Caribbean program for the 2026 edition. The race runs on the RORC biennial schedule; the next edition follows in 2028 under whatever weather window the Atlantic delivers on the day.

Fleet DNA

How the Transatlantic fleet is built.

14 boats in the fleet. 8 ORC-rated and 6 mapped IRC entries attributed across 6 archetypes. The full fleet-classified archetype distribution, sorted by count.

The 6-archetype distribution.

AEROBLADE

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

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 6
Share 42.9%
  • Class 40
  • IMOCA derivatives
  • Pogo 30

GRAVITYRUN

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 3
Share 21.4%
  • Swan 47
  • C&C 41
  • Sigma 38

AEROMAX

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

strong upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 2
Share 14.3%
  • TP52
  • GP42
  • Melges IC37

DEEPFRAME

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 1
Share 7.1%
  • Swan 60
  • Nautor custom
  • ClubSwan 50

HEADFORCE

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

strong upwind · weak reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 1
Share 7.1%
  • First 34.7
  • Grand Soleil 37
  • Sun Fast 3300

KEELFLEX

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 1
Share 7.1%
  • First 30
  • X-35
  • J/35

AEROBLADE leads the 14-boat Transatlantic fleet at 42.9% (6 boats) — the light, agile racing-platform archetype that converts open-water trade-wind reaches into sustained speed across a week-long crossing. GRAVITYRUN follows at 21.4% (3 boats) — the heavy-mode momentum hulls that carry downwind power on the long descent toward the Caribbean — with AEROMAX at 14.3% (2 boats) bringing high-power reaching behind it. The top three archetypes together account for 78.6% of the fleet — a clear ocean-passage signature where light reaching speed leads, then the fleet thins past the lead band into single-hull entries for DEEPFRAME, HEADFORCE, and KEELFLEX at 7.1% each. Five archetypes are absent from this fleet entirely — the small 14-boat program does not field the full breadth of the FleetEdge design groups.

Fleet Stories

Transatlantic fleet signature.

Designer Density

Frers and Verdier — the Transatlantic’s tied most-common designers.

Frers G and Verdier each placed 2 of the 14 fleet boats (14.3%) at the RORC Transatlantic — tied for the largest single-designer share in a fleet where no board commands the fleet outright. Frers G anchors the two Swan superyachts (BECOOL Swan 128, Spirit of Helsinki Swan 651); Verdier anchors the Class 40 pair (KORNOG 2, ROCK'N'ROLL). Below the tied lead, the fleet spreads across ten more boards at 1 boat each — Judel-Vrolijk (HASPA HAMBURG), Ker J (INO NOIR), Johnstone R (JACKKNIFE), Hoek (LINNEA AURORA superyacht), Kouyoumdjian (LUCKY), Ceccarelli (NEOJIVARO), Briand P (PATA NEGRA), Ståhle (RAVEN), Acebal (TEAM 42), and Andrieu Verdier (Stimmy — a separate board from the Verdier Class 40 line). In a 14-boat ocean-passage fleet, no single drawing-board carries the fleet — the Transatlantic is a multi-designer Atlantic crossing program.

  • Frers G: 2 boats · 14.3% (Swan 128, Swan 651)
  • Verdier: 2 boats · 14.3% (Class 40 pair)
  • 10 further designers: 1 boat each · 7.1% apiece
Directional · small fleet FleetEdge fleet-wide data
Archetype Density

AEROBLADE leads the Transatlantic fleet.

AEROBLADE carries 42.9% of the Transatlantic fleet (6 of 14 boats), with GRAVITYRUN at 21.4% (3 boats) and AEROMAX at 14.3% (2 boats) behind — a top-three that accounts for 78.6% of the fleet. AEROBLADE is the light, agile racing-platform archetype that delivers the Juan K 27 LUCKY, the J/V 52 HASPA HAMBURG, the Ker-46 INO NOIR, the Neo-430 Roma NEOJIVARO, and the Verdier Class 40 pair KORNOG 2 and ROCK'N'ROLL to the fleet — the hulls built for sustained reaching across the open-water trade-wind segments of the crossing. GRAVITYRUN brings heavy-mode momentum — the two Frers Swan superyachts (BECOOL Swan 128, Spirit of Helsinki Swan 651) and the LINNEA AURORA Truly Classic 128 carry downwind power for the long descent toward the Caribbean. AEROMAX adds high-power reaching with the First 45 PATA NEGRA and the Solaris 55 TEAM 42. Below the lead band the fleet thins to one hull each — the J-125 JACKKNIFE (DEEPFRAME), the Comfortina 32 RAVEN (HEADFORCE), and the Sunfast 3300 Stimmy (KEELFLEX). Five archetypes (STEELCORE, GLIDEFORM, IRONWIND, STEELFORM, STORMLINE) are absent from this fleet entirely — the small 14-boat ocean-passage program does not field the full breadth of the FleetEdge design groups.

  • AEROBLADE: 6 boats · 42.9%
  • GRAVITYRUN: 3 boats · 21.4% · AEROMAX 2 · 14.3%
  • Top three = 78.6% of the 14-boat cohort
Directional · small fleet FleetEdge fleet-wide data
Selected Race Result

RORC Transatlantic Race 2026 — 3,000 nm Lanzarote to Antigua.

10 of the 14 fleet boats competed at the 2026 edition on 11 January 2026 — a single offshore ocean-crossing race scored Overall under IRC, with comparative-allowance data on the 5 boats that reached FleetEdge’s comparative-data threshold across the week-long crossing.

Headlines

Dimension leaders — Transatlantic 2026 fleet.

Allowance — sec/nm vs ORC median

1. JACKKNIFE · −185.97
2. NEOJIVARO · −151.91
3. Stimmy · −69.88
Cohort 5 of 10 boats

IRC Overall — published standing

2nd INO NOIR · Ker-46
3rd JACKKNIFE · J-125
5th RAVEN · Comfortina 32
Cohort 10 boats ranked

Sail Drive Index

1. LINNEA AURORA · 51
2. BECOOL · 46
3. JACKKNIFE · 42
Cohort 5 of 10 boats

Upwind VMG — 12 kt, kn

1. BECOOL · 8.12
2. INO NOIR · 6.47
3. LINNEA AURORA · 6.43
Cohort 10 boats

Downwind VMG — 12 kt, kn

1. BECOOL · 9.20
2. LINNEA AURORA · 8.03
3. INO NOIR · 8.02
Cohort 10 boats

Crew Residual — sec/nm, event

1. JACKKNIFE · −187.24
2. NEOJIVARO · −153.77
3. Stimmy · −71.13
Cohort 3 of 10 boats
Stories

What the Transatlantic 2026 fleet surfaced.

Magnitude Gap

JACKKNIFE clears the Transatlantic allowance board by 34 sec/nm.

JACKKNIFE (J-125, Johnstone R, DEEPFRAME) led the 2026 comparative-allowance field at −185.97 sec/nm vs the ORC median — 34 sec/nm clear of NEOJIVARO (Neo-430 Roma, Ceccarelli YD, AEROBLADE) at −151.91 in second. Stimmy (Sunfast 3300, STEELFORM) followed at −69.88 sec/nm in third, a further 82 sec/nm back — the top two ran away from the rest of the comparative board entirely after 3,000 nm of crossing. The allowance metric and the scored result are different surfaces, and FleetEdge does not conflate them — but at this running they point the same way: JACKKNIFE also took 3rd in the published IRC Overall standing, the only boat to lead the allowance board and hold a top-three scored finish at once. The sample is small (5 of 10 boats reach FleetEdge’s comparative-data threshold across the crossing) but the magnitude is unambiguous.

  • 1st: JACKKNIFE · −185.97 sec/nm · DEEPFRAME
  • 2nd: NEOJIVARO · −151.91 sec/nm · 34.1 sec/nm gap
  • 3rd: Stimmy · −69.88 sec/nm · 82.0 sec/nm behind 2nd
Directional · single-race small sample RORC Transatlantic 2026
Multi-Dimension Presence

BECOOL stacks both VMG-12kt boards from the Swan 128.

BECOOL (Swan 128, Frers G, GRAVITYRUN) tops both Transatlantic 2026 VMG dimensions at once — Upwind VMG at 12 kt at 8.12 kn (1.65 kn clear of INO NOIR), and Downwind VMG at 12 kt at 9.20 kn (1.17 kn clear of LINNEA AURORA) — and seconds the Sail Drive Index board at 46, behind only LINNEA AURORA’s 51. The Frers-drawn Swan 128 superyacht converts length and rig power into top-three presence across three dimension families at the 12-knot reference condition, and it is the only boat in the 2026 fleet to lead two separate dimension families simultaneously. The dimensional presence did not convert to the scored result — BECOOL sits 16th in the published IRC Overall standing — a reminder that the reference-condition polars and the corrected-time table measure different things across a week at sea.

  • BECOOL Upwind VMG-12kt: 8.12 kn · 1st of 10 (1.65 kn clear)
  • BECOOL Downwind VMG-12kt: 9.20 kn · 1st of 10 (1.17 kn clear)
  • BECOOL Sail Drive Index: 46 · 2nd of 5 (LINNEA AURORA 51)
Directional · single-race small sample RORC Transatlantic 2026
Nationality Cluster

Three GBR flags in the top five.

GBR-flagged fleet boats took 2nd, 3rd, and 5th in the published IRC Overall standing of the 2026 Transatlantic — INO NOIR (Ker-46) in 2nd, JACKKNIFE (J-125) in 3rd, and RAVEN (Comfortina 32) in 5th. No fleet boat took the overall win, but the British cluster owns the chasing places — and it does so across three different archetypes: INO NOIR is AEROBLADE, JACKKNIFE is DEEPFRAME, and RAVEN is STEELCORE. The concentration is national, not structural — three differently built platforms from the same flag converting a 3,000 nm trade-wind crossing into top-five corrected-time finishes, from a 12.5 m J-125 to a 9.5 m Comfortina 32. In a 10-boat start line that is a cluster worth naming, with the usual small-sample caveat attached.

  • 2nd: INO NOIR · GBR · Ker-46 · AEROBLADE
  • 3rd: JACKKNIFE · GBR · J-125 · DEEPFRAME
  • 5th: RAVEN · GBR · Comfortina 32 · STEELCORE
Directional · small fleet RORC Transatlantic 2026
Composition Shift

A reaching-and-running start line.

The current fleet baseline is AEROBLADE-led — 42.9% of the 14 classified boats, with GRAVITYRUN at 21.4% and AEROMAX at 14.3% behind — but the 2026 start line, read at the FleetEdge view published nearest the race, told a flatter story at the top. The 10-boat 2026 race group ran AEROBLADE and DEEPFRAME level at 30% each (3 boats apiece), GRAVITYRUN at 20% (2), and one hull each in the chasing band — the deep, drag-optimized platforms were over-represented on the start line relative to where the fleet sits today. AEROBLADE still anchors both views, but half the fleet’s reaching contingent (LUCKY, HASPA HAMBURG, PATA NEGRA among them) stayed ashore from the 2025 group. Only INO NOIR and ROCK'N'ROLL appear in both editions of the analytic record; the biennial schedule keeps the fleet small, and the next edition runs in 2028.

  • Fleet baseline (14 boats, current): AEROBLADE 42.9% · GRAVITYRUN 21.4% · AEROMAX 14.3%
  • 2026 start line (10 boats): AEROBLADE 30% · DEEPFRAME 30% · GRAVITYRUN 20%
  • Editions populated: 2025 (6) · 2026 (10) · both editions: INO NOIR + ROCK'N'ROLL
Directional · small fleet Fleet composition
Race Archetypes

10 boats classified in the RORC Transatlantic Race 2026.

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

All 10 fleet boats that started the 2026 edition carry a FleetEdge archetype assignment. AEROBLADE and DEEPFRAME share the lead, GRAVITYRUN follows, and STEELCORE and STEELFORM field one hull each. The distribution below is the FleetEdge view published nearest the 2026 race.

AEROBLADE

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

Boats 3
Share 30.0%

DEEPFRAME

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

Boats 3
Share 30.0%

GRAVITYRUN

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

Boats 2
Share 20.0%

STEELCORE

The rigid-platform core

Boats 1
Share 10.0%

STEELFORM

Heavy-displacement hull with strong directional stability.

Boats 1
Share 10.0%
Continue

Go deeper.

IRC Racing

All six IRC offshore classics in one analytical framework — the Transatlantic is one of the five flagship races with full HYCOM ocean-current treatment.

RORC Caribbean 600

600 nm around 11 Caribbean islands — 9 of the 14 Transatlantic fleet boats (64.3%) also race the Caribbean 600, the largest cross-event overlap in the fleet’s analytic record.

Fastnet

The 605 nm Solent-to-Fastnet-Rock loop — HASPA HAMBURG, PATA NEGRA, and ROCK'N'ROLL pair the Atlantic crossing with the Fastnet in the same calendar year.

ORC World Fleet

The cross-fleet ORC reference for archetype, designer, and class signature — the dictionary against which the Transatlantic’s 42.9% AEROBLADE share reads.

Middle Sea Race

The 606 nm Maltese loop — JACKKNIFE and NEOJIVARO pair the Transatlantic with the Middle Sea Race as a multi-event offshore winter program.

Fleet Archetypes

The 11-archetype design groups that let us read the Transatlantic’s structural signature — what AEROBLADE, DEEPFRAME, and GRAVITYRUN are and why the 3,000 nm crossing puts the three together.

Analyze the Transatlantic.

2,995 nm from Lanzarote to the Caribbean. The ultimate weather-routing dataset.

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