Admiral’s Cup bounces back – is this the pinnacle of ‘big boat’ racing once again?

After a 22-year hiatus the 'big boat world championship' - the famous and much revered Admiral's Cup - returns this weekend. Here's how to follow:

The Admiral’s Cup returns, for the first time in 22 years, with a bumper fleet of 15 international teams racing in the Solent from 19-26 July, before the event concludes with the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race.

The 23rd Admiral’s Cup will take place in Cowes, Isle of Wight, with racing organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, which has successfully revived the event for its centenary year.

Competition begins with a short offshore race on 19 July – the Channel Race, around 110-150 miles. Counting for double points (and non-discardable), this race will put the pressure on the Cup teams from the off. To complicate matters for the strategy team on board, there will also be a further 40 boats racing in the RORC offshore that aren’t connected to the Admiral’s Cup fleet.

The forecast currently shows a light to moderate 8-14 knots at the start of the Channel Race, building to a cracking 15-25 knot south-westerly into Sunday, which should see the all-out race designs flying offshore.

After a layday, there will be three days of inshore racing, before the grand finale: the Rolex Fastnet Race, starting on 26 July.

The format for the revitalised event is a two-boat team competition, under IRC, with the larger boat from 45-56ft and the smaller yacht 36-44ft.

Entries may represent yacht clubs and/or countries, with three teams from Germany and two from the UK, as well as entries from Australia, the Netherlands, the USA’s New York YC, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Ireland, Monaco, Italy, France and Sweden.

Mandated women crew

Another change for 2025 is that each boat must include one female, plus one ‘young’ (under-27) crew member – a rule which has divided opinion.

“I’ll be honest – I wasn’t initially thrilled about the crew rule requiring one woman on board. It felt like the bare minimum, and I’ve often found myself as the only woman on the team,” commented American ocean racer Cole Brauer, who is sailing with the Monaco team. “While I respect and enjoy sailing with the guys, I truly believe crews perform better with more women involved.

“I hope that in five or 10 years, we won’t need a rule like this, because the sailing world will naturally reflect the talent of both women and men equally.”

Her sentiments were echoed by Joy Racer, who’s sailing with RORC White (GBR). “Honestly… my first reaction to the crew rule was a bit of an eye-roll – are we really still having to tell teams to include women?

“But I also recognise that this rule has opened doors. For me, it led to joining the Final Final team and becoming part of something that goes beyond just one regatta.

“Yes, it might start as tokenism for some, but it gives women the chance to prove their value and build a place in professional teams.”

IRC design race

Boat choice is critical – each team’s yachts need to be optimised to perform over both short-course racing and the 695-mile Rolex Fastnet Race, in a potentially huge range of wind conditions. Many of the newest designs now utilise water ballast to switch between inshore and offshore racing modes.

“I grew up with the Admiral’s Cup as the premier offshore event and it was always dubbed the unofficial world championship of offshore sailing. I hope we get back to that and that title gets given back to it,” commented British tactician Adrian Stead, who has competed in four previous Admiral’s Cups and for 2025 will be on the New Zealand big boat Caro.

“There are some very strong teams competing. However, a team’s results are only going to be as good as the best and worst of your races; and you’ve just got to be consistent.

“The Channel Race has double points and the Fastnet triple points. Neither can be discarded so they are very important, but if you are finishing 14th or so for the inshore races it’s very unlikely that you’ll win the Admiral’s Cup.

“Also, you have to be good across all the weather conditions that are thrown out and the regatta is going to be raced over 10 days, so who knows what we will get? So, consistency will be the key.”

In previous decades the Admiral’s Cup (and its Corinthian equivalent, the Commodores’ Cup) was a huge driver behind one-off race boat designs and builds, and it’s hoped the relaunched event will also have a revitalising effect.

New yachts launched for this event include a Botin 40, built by Carrington Boats in Hythe, Hampshire, for the Royal Hong Kong YC entry, and the freshly launched Wallyrocket51 Django – see the August issue of Yachting World for our first sail – in the Italian team.

Stellar entry

From its first run in 1957, until its last event in 2003, the Admiral’s Cup has attracted some of the biggest names in sailing, including Ted Turner, Dennis Connor and Peter Blake.

The 2025 event includes a similarly stellar crew list – the highly competitive Yacht Club Monaco boats Jolt 3 and Jolt 6 count Ed Baird, Will Harris, and Joey Newton on their team sheet. Meanwhile the Swedish entry has Bouwe Bekking, Steve Hayles and Justin Slattery among the crew on Ràn.

The Australian TP52 Zen (CCYA) includes ocean racing legend Chris Nicholson among its all-star Australian crew, while fellow Volvo Ocean Race veteran Ian Walker is on the highly successful Cookson 50 Privateer (racing for Royal Irish YC), and the Botin 56 Black Pearl (New York YC) has Abby Ehler and Mo Gray onboard.

Other boats to watch for include Caro (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron), which won the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race; 2021 Fastnet winning team Sunrise, now on a JPK 1180 (also Royal Irish YC); and the stunning Elida, a modern cold-molded wooden design by Thomas Tison racing for Hamburger SC.

Many teams have been training hard in the Solent for weeks – the Royal Thames YC’s 250th anniversary regatta with the IRC Nationals offered an early form indicator with 21 of the 30 boats competing. The Hong Kong big boat, Karl Kwok’s TP52 Beau Geste, took IRC 0, and Monaco’s Carkeek 40 Jolt 6 won IRC 1.

How to follow the Admiral’s Cup

The Admiral’s Cup has a dedicated microsite at admiralscup.rorc.org with full entry list.

There will be satellite tracking for both the inshore and offshore races. The Live YB Satellite tracking for the first Channel Race is at https://cf.yb.tl/channel2025

The inshore racing can also be followed on Trac Trac (be warned, the tack-by-tack live action is addictive).

The Channel Race will start from the Central Solent, but the Rolex Fastnet Race famously starts from the Royal Yacht Squadron line in Cowes. The Admiral’s Cup start is at 1200. Also see our full guide to following the Fastnet Race.

The prize giving will be held at the Rolex Fastnet Race village in Cherbourg on Thursday 31 July at 1800.

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