USA ORC Fleet

US ORC racing — East Coast, Gulf Coast, Great Lakes, West Coast

Annapolis Charleston Key West Newport Block Island San Francisco Miami Detroit
1,065 boats 54 events 470 races 723 race observations Domestic competitive fleet · as of 2026-06-21
Kinship

American waters hold their own story.

Annapolis, Newport, Key West, Great Lakes, Block Island — find US offshore racing.

 Hidden Shape

11 archetypes.
How this fleet clusters before the results arrive.

How every American boat clusters, before the results arrive.
Fleet DNA

How the USA ORC fleet is built.

979 boats in the fleet. 970 ORC-rated and 9 mapped IRC entries attributed across 11 archetypes.

742 boats are classified; 323 (30.3% of the fleet) are not yet classed in the public archetype model — a data-coverage note: some boats lack enough certificate fields for classification, largely reflecting US-specific scoring authorities (PHRF crossover, ORR vs ORC) among recently added boats in one of the largest national ORC fleets in the world.

The USA ORC Fleet Signature

The US ORC fleet is a light-and-agile, J/Boats-anchored collective at scale across four coastlines. AEROBLADE leads at 16.5% (162 boats), the light, agile sportboats built for quick acceleration and flat-water speed across Newport, San Francisco Bay, and Long Island Sound. DEEPFRAME follows at 13.0% (127 boats) — deep-hull efficiency paired with stiff platforms tuned for drag-optimized flow, the structural backbone of the American Atlantic and Pacific offshore fleet. AEROMAX closes the top-three at 9.9% (97 boats), the power-efficiency hybrids with strong upwind drive at the TP52, GP42, and Melges IC37 tier. Together these three archetypes account for 412 of the fleet's 742 classified boats, anchored by a J/Boats designer signature (220 boats, 20.8% of the 1,065-boat fleet) well ahead of Farr Design — one of the deepest and broadest national ORC fleets in the world, racing from NYYC Newport down to Charleston, Key West, and across to San Francisco.

  • AEROBLADE 16.5% · 162 boats
  • DEEPFRAME 13.0% · 127 boats
  • AEROMAX 9.9% · 97 boats

Dimension emphasis: Comparative Time · Crew Effectiveness · Sail Drive

Johnstone R / J/Boats (220 boats, 20.8% of the fleet) anchors the designer signature — the J-120, J-105, J-109, J-111, and J-88 production family is the structural backbone of the American racer-cruiser ecology and holds a leading share of the fleet above 15%. Farr Design follows in the most-common band. The Annapolis-to-Newport offshore, Block Island Race Week, Charleston Race Week, the GL52 Ugotta Regatta on the Great Lakes, and the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta series anchor the flagship US ORC calendar.

Complete data Latest published view

The full 11-archetype distribution.

AEROBLADE

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

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 162
Share 16.5%
  • Class 40
  • IMOCA derivatives
  • Pogo 30

DEEPFRAME

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 127
Share 13.0%
  • Swan 60
  • Nautor custom
  • ClubSwan 50

AEROMAX

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

strong upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 97
Share 9.9%
  • TP52
  • GP42
  • Melges IC37

GLIDEFORM

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

weak upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 94
Share 9.6%
  • J/109
  • Dehler 38
  • Italia 11

GRAVITYRUN

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 59
Share 6.0%
  • Swan 47
  • C&C 41
  • Sigma 38

IRONWIND

Stiff, stable-drive platform with predictable load behavior.

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 40
Share 4.1%
  • J/122
  • XP-44
  • Swan 45

STORMLINE

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

moderate upwind · strong reaching · moderate downwind

Boats 26
Share 2.7%
  • J/111
  • J/121
  • Fast 40+

KEELFLEX

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 18
Share 1.8%
  • First 30
  • X-35
  • J/35

STEELFORM

Heavy-displacement hull with strong directional stability.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 16
Share 1.6%
  • J/70
  • Farr 280
  • SB20

STEELCORE

Stiff, platform-rigid hull that holds a stable drive through sustained breeze.

neutral upwind · neutral reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 12
Share 1.2%
  • First 40
  • Bavaria C42
  • Hanse 388

HEADFORCE

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

strong upwind · weak reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 5
Share 0.5%
  • First 34.7
  • Grand Soleil 37
  • Sun Fast 3300
At a glance

USA ORC — structural profile.

Scope
979 boats
970 ORC-rated · 9 mapped-IRC
Top 3 archetypes
  1. AEROBLADE — 162 boats (16.5%)
  2. DEEPFRAME — 127 boats (13.0%)
  3. AEROMAX — 97 boats (9.9%)
Eleven canonical performance archetypes cluster the fleet by dimensional signature. See the full map →
Top designer cluster
Johnstone R
210 boats (21.5%) — the most-represented design voice in this fleet.

Counts and archetype assignments above are measured from the current corpus. Commentary below is interpretive.

Domestic competitive fleet · as of 2026-06-21
Fleet Stories

The American ORC signature.

Designer Density

The J/Boats backbone of the American fleet.

Johnstone R / J/Boats anchors the US ORC fleet with 220 boats — 20.8% of the 1,065-boat roster, a dominant single-designer share well above the 15% threshold. The J-120, J-105, J-109, J-111, and J-88 production family is the structural backbone of the American racer-cruiser ecology, the production line that fills club racing from Long Island Sound to the Chesapeake to San Francisco Bay. No other drawing board comes close to that share in the US fleet; Farr Design follows in the most-common band. The J/Boats signature is one of the few designer-density signals across the FleetEdge platform with a leading share above 15% — a structural market presence, not a single-event cluster.

  • Johnstone R / J/Boats: 220 boats · 20.8% of the 1,065-boat fleet
  • Production family: J-120, J-105, J-109, J-111, J-88
  • Source: fleet-wide designer density (all USA fleet boats)
Complete data Fleet composition
Archetype Density

An AEROBLADE-led American fleet.

AEROBLADE leads the US ORC fleet at 22.5% — 167 of the 742 classified boats — the light, agile platforms optimized for quick acceleration and flat-water speed. That is a long-running structural preference, not a single-race signal: the American fleet has consolidated around responsive, acceleration-first platforms that suit the windward-leeward and coastal racing that fills the East Coast and West Coast calendars. DEEPFRAME (18.6%, 138 boats) and AEROMAX (14.4%, 107 boats) follow, giving the fleet a deep-hull-efficiency and power-hybrid second tier beneath the AEROBLADE lead. The breadth is real — all 11 archetypes are populated — but the design preference reads clearly toward light and agile at the top.

  • AEROBLADE: 167 boats · 22.5% of 742 classified
  • Second / third: DEEPFRAME 138 (18.6%) · AEROMAX 107 (14.4%)
  • Source: fleet-wide archetype density (current build)
Complete data Fleet composition
Popular Classes

The boats that define American ORC racing.

First 36.7 (40)

A Bénéteau-built Farr Design one-design racer-cruiser — the single most-common class across the American ORC fleet.

J-105 (33)

The Johnstone R / J/Boats sprit-boat one-design — a strict-class fixture of US club and offshore racing.

J-120 (31)

A J/Boats offshore racer-cruiser — the larger-displacement J-line workhorse of the East Coast distance calendar.

J-111 (28)

A J/Boats planing sportboat — the modern one-design that drives the American windward-leeward and coastal fleets.

J-109 (22)

A J/Boats racer-cruiser — a durable offshore one-design that anchors the upwind-efficient tier of the fleet.

Selected Race Result

2025 Annapolis to Newport Race — ORC offshore classes.

65 of the 1,065 fleet boats competed in the classic Chesapeake-to-Rhode-Island offshore. One distance race, scored across six ORC classes plus a double-handed division. June 2025.

Headlines

Who led the divisions.

Six class winners across the fleet

American ORC boats topped six divisions on the Annapolis-to-Newport track — ORC Open 1, 2, and 3, both Performance Cruiser divisions, and the Double-Handed class. A broad, multi-class result rather than a single-boat sweep.

OC JV66 TEMPTATION takes ORC Open 1

The Judel-Vrolijk JV-66 (USA-119) won the headline ORC Open 1 division — the deepest-rated class on the course — ahead of the J-105 KASHMIR and the Kernan-Courouble 47 DREAM CRUSHER.

Rank-results event

The Annapolis-to-Newport result is published as finishing-order standings; FleetEdge surfaces the class podiums rather than corrected-time dimension leaders for this distance race.

A J/Boats-heavy podium spread

Johnstone R / J/Boats hulls fill the podium positions across multiple classes — the J-105, J-109, J-111, J-120, and J-99 lines all placed, the production backbone of the American fleet doing the everyday distance-racing work.

Stories

The Annapolis-to-Newport story.

Championship Citation

OC JV66 TEMPTATION — Event Champion, ORC Open 1.

USA-119 OC JV66 TEMPTATION AEROBLADE (JV-66, Judel-Vrolijk, Goetz build) won ORC Open 1 at the 2025 Annapolis to Newport Race — a class win on the headline division of the Chesapeake-to-Rhode-Island offshore. FleetEdge classifies TEMPTATION as AEROBLADE, the light-and-agile platform archetype that leads the American fleet at 22.5%. The win came on the deepest-rated class of the course, ahead of the J-105 KASHMIR and the Kernan-Courouble 47 DREAM CRUSHER. A clean class title for the maxi end of the East Coast distance fleet.

  • ORC Open 1: 1st in class
  • Class behind: KASHMIR (J-105) 2nd · DREAM CRUSHER (Kernan-Courouble 47) 3rd
  • Archetype: AEROBLADE (the fleet's leading family)
Complete data Annapolis to Newport 2025
Multi-Champion Cluster

Six American class winners across one offshore.

The fleet took six division wins at Annapolis-to-Newport — OC JV66 TEMPTATION AEROBLADE (ORC Open 1), Arcadia (ORC Open 2, LM-46), ZUUL DEEPFRAME (ORC Open 3, Aerodyne 38), Blue Skies AEROMAX (Performance Cruiser 1, Alden Skye 51), TWIGA AEROMAX (Performance Cruiser 2, J-109), and SUNDOG DEEPFRAME (Double-Handed, J-111). The shared thread is the J/Boats backbone — TWIGA and SUNDOG are J-line boats, and Johnstone R hulls fill the runner-up slots across the board. Six wins across six classes is a breadth result: the American fleet did not put one boat on top of everything; it put a boat on top of every kind of division, from grand-prix Open to cruiser-rated to short-handed.

  • Class winners: 6 divisions (Open 1/2/3, PC 1/2, Double-Handed)
  • J/Boats winners: TWIGA (J-109) · SUNDOG (J-111)
  • Spread across grand-prix, cruiser-rated, and short-handed classes
Complete data Annapolis to Newport 2025
Archetype-Conditions Dominance

AEROBLADE held the front in the conditions that prevailed.

AEROBLADE was the dominant archetype on the 2025 Annapolis-to-Newport course, carrying 42.6% of the classified entries — well ahead of its fleet-wide share — and the light, agile platforms converted on the day. On the conditions that ran for this Chesapeake-to-Rhode-Island offshore, the acceleration-first AEROBLADE hulls held the front through the transitions that define a distance race down the Bay and up the coast. This is a race-day signal, not a property of the course alone: a heavy-air reaching pattern or a light-running second half would have rewarded a different family. On the breeze and sea state that prevailed for this running, the agile platforms that the American fleet is built around carried the result — with DEEPFRAME and GRAVITYRUN sharing the next tier at 20.4% each.

  • AEROBLADE share on the course 42.6% (23 of 54 classified)
  • Next tier: DEEPFRAME 20.4% · GRAVITYRUN 20.4%
  • Conditional read: result reflects the conditions on the day, not the course alone
Complete data Annapolis to Newport 2025
Fleet vs Race Composition Shift

The offshore cohort leaned harder toward AEROBLADE than the home fleet.

The 1,065-boat US ORC home fleet runs AEROBLADE at 22.5% (167 of 742 classified), but the 54-boat classified Annapolis-to-Newport cohort ran AEROBLADE at 42.6% — nearly double the fleet-wide share. A self-selecting distance offshore pulls the light-and-agile sharp end forward: the boats that travel to a Bay-to-coast race skew toward the acceleration-first platforms, while the broad home fleet — with its 18.6% DEEPFRAME deep-hull tier, 14.4% AEROMAX power-hybrid second rank, and the long tail down through STEELCORE and HEADFORCE — reflects everyday club and regional racing. The event cohort is the racing tip; the fleet distribution is the whole iceberg. Both are American ORC, just at different selection points.

  • AEROBLADE: 42.6% in event vs 22.5% fleet-wide
  • Event cohort: 54 classified of 65 entries
  • Home fleet: 742 classified across 11 archetypes
Complete data Archetype groups
Race Archetypes

54 boats classified in the 2025 Annapolis to Newport Race.

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

AEROBLADE

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

moderate upwind · moderate reaching · neutral downwind

Boats 23
Share 42.6%
  • Class 40
  • IMOCA derivatives
  • Pogo 30

DEEPFRAME

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 11
Share 20.4%
  • Swan 60
  • Nautor custom
  • ClubSwan 50

GRAVITYRUN

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

neutral upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 11
Share 20.4%
  • Swan 47
  • C&C 41
  • Sigma 38

STORMLINE

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

moderate upwind · strong reaching · moderate downwind

Boats 5
Share 9.3%
  • J/111
  • J/121
  • Fast 40+

GLIDEFORM

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

weak upwind · moderate reaching · strong downwind

Boats 2
Share 3.7%
  • J/109
  • Dehler 38
  • Italia 11

HEADFORCE

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

strong upwind · weak reaching · VMG downwind

Boats 1
Share 1.9%
  • 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 1
Share 1.9%
  • J/122
  • XP-44
  • Swan 45
Continue

Go deeper.

Sailing in the USA

ORC offshore racing across American waters — East Coast, Great Lakes, Gulf, and Pacific. The country lens on the 1,065-boat fleet anchored by the J/Boats production family.

ORC Worlds 2026 — Sorrento

The international championship where the American maxi sharp end races the world — 94 boats from 29 countries, the global frame above the home distance calendar that the Annapolis-to-Newport result belongs to.

ORC World Fleet

The international championship-circuit fleet that hosts the Worlds, the Continentals, and the Double-Handed championships — the broader frame above the American domestic fleet.

Italy ORC Fleet

Tyrrhenian and Adriatic offshore racing — one of Europe's deepest and most competitive ORC fleets, a structural counterpoint to the American J/Boats-anchored signature.

Fleet Archetypes

The 11-archetype FleetEdge framework — the framework underneath every chart, story, and headline on this hub.

The ORC Promise

Why the international rating system that runs the Worlds is the same system that rates the 1,065-boat US domestic fleet across all 11 archetypes.

Analyze the USA ORC fleet in FleetEdge.

Crew performance, boat archetype analysis, and competitive intelligence across all major regattas.

Explore FleetEdge Explore USA Racing