At its peak, the Admiral’s Cup was considered to be the unofficial world championship of ocean racing. It was held without interruption from 1957 to 1999, before its last edition in 2003. Re-launched 22 years later by its organisers, the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) – which is celebrating its centenary this year – the event will take place from 17 July to 1 August. Tip & Shaft tells you all about this comeback.
“The first Admiral’s Cup [the name refers to Admiral Miles Wyatt, who presented the cup to the winner, editor’s note] began as a challenge to the Americans in 1957″, the aim being to motivate them and the other nations to come and compete in Cowes Week with a national team of three boats, as Jeremy Wilton, CEO of the RORC since 2021, recalls. “The Admiral’s Cup is part of the RORC’s DNA“. Having taken part in the selections in 1987 and 1989, he considers that it was then “the most prestigious sailing race, with 19 teams from all over the world at its peak, attracting the most talented sailors, like those in the America’s Cup”.
Jean-Yves Bernot remembers the victorious French campaign in 1991 with the Corum team, put together by Luc Gellusseau and Philippe Briand. “The Anglo-Saxons said that a single Frenchman could win a race, but that a French crew could never do it. We proved that wrong by winning this Admiral’s Cup by 0.75 points ahead of the Italians. We didn’t expect it, it was a great moment.” To date, it is the only French victory in 23 editions of an event that has gradually fallen into decline.
After being cancelled in 2001 and having its last edition in 2003, the Admiral’s Cup disappeared from the RORC’s racing calendar due to a combination of factors that Jeremy Wilton describes as a “perfect storm”. The CEO of the Cowes-based institution points in particular to “the need to bring together three boats, which led to excessive costs“. The RORC then thought of relocating the race to Ireland to arouse new interest, but this was “deviating from the spirit of the Admiral’s Cup, because it meant that it no longer included the Fastnet race”, one of its pillars, adds Wilton, who believes that “the RORC was probably slow to react and didn’t ask itself the right questions about what needed to be done to organise a new edition in 2005″.
Jean-Yves Bernot has a more direct analysis: “The Americans wanted to sail on an impeccable stretch of water without gusts or currents, and the organisers gave in a little to this pressure. We started to avoid racing in the Solent, which was the soul of the Admiral’s Cup, then the Fastnet, because a famous American skipper thought it was too dangerous to sail a Mumm 36 in the Fastnet… the event ended up losing its character.”
From three to two boats
And get lost altogether, since it took almost twenty years for the RORC to work on relaunching the event, initiated in particular by Jeremy Wilton after his induction as CEO. “Initially, we had considered organising a test edition in 2023 in the Caribbean around the RORC Caribbean 600 to evaluate the concept, but it took too long and we couldn’t do it. It did, however, give us the opportunity to discuss the project with quite a few people and to validate the choice of two-boat teams, representing a club or a country.”
Then RORC’s vice-commodore, Éric De Turckheim, who will represent France in this 2025 edition with his 45-foot Teasing machine, explains: “It had to be simpler than the original competition, which was contested by national teams of three boats. I pushed for club teams of two boats, 40 and 50 footers, because it’s in these series that the highest level is to be found.”
At the same time, the RORC rating committee worked on different combinations of TCC [compensated time system used in IRC, editor’s note] to come up with two categories, AC1 and AC2. This means boats between 13.41 and 17.20 metres for the former (TCC between 1,280 and 1,464), and between 11 metres and 13.40 metres for the latter (TCC between 1,100 and 1,276). A new rule has also made it compulsory for there to be at least one woman on board and one male or female crew member under the age of 27, who cannot be the same person.
Back to basics
As for the race programme, “it goes back to the historical fundamentals of the Admiral’s Cup, a combination of inshore and offshore races, which count equally for points in the final ranking. It was important to achieve this balance”, explains the RORC’s CEO. This 2025 edition will open on July 19 with the Channel Race, a course of around 24 hours around the Isle of Wight (coefficient 2). This will be followed by six legs over three days of inshore racing (22-24 July, each with a coefficient of 1, one of which may be withdrawn), before the Rolex Fastnet Race gets underway on 26 July (coefficient 3).
The winner of this ‘revival’ edition will be then known at the finish in Cherbourg, the number of entries has exceeded Jermey Wilton’s initial expectations: “When we thought about relaunching the Admiral’s Cup, we said that 8 to 10 teams would be a good score, and we’ve got 15 (representing 10 countries), so we’re delighted. Especially as the crew lists are like a Who‘s Who of regattas, with Olympic medallists, racers from The Ocean Race, Imoca racers, America’s Cup winners…”. Just to name a few among the entrants Dean Barker, Ian Walker, Ed Baird, Bouwe Bekking, Mike Sanderson, Vasco Vascotto, Gavin Brady, Simon Daubney, Abby Ehler, Jules Salter, Adrian Stead, Cameron Appleton… and a few owners who are well used to the international circuits, such as Niklas Zennström, Sean Langman, James Neville, Karl Kwok, Peter Harrison and, on the French side, Eric de Turckheim.
“The level looks set to be very high with some very fine teams, 5-6 of whom could win and we’re getting into it, but it’s going to depend a lot on the conditions”, says Eric de Turckheim who, on his Nivelt Teasing Machine design, will be accompanied by Laurent Pagès, Aymeric Chappellier and Marina Lobato among others. The crew will be racing under the colours of the Yacht Club de France, whose racing branch, the UNCL (which merged with the YCF two years ago), “historically selected the teams for the Admiral’s Cup”, recalls Philippe Sérénon, vice-president of the YCF.
The other French representative will be Philippe Frantz’s NMD 43 (13.07 m) Albator. “We approached Philippe because his boat, designed by the same architect, is very similar to ours, but in the 40-foot class. These boats are a little more suited to offshore sailing, so we know we’re going to suffer in the inshore races, but we’re hoping for conditions that will be favourable to us so that we can put our power to good use in the Channel Race and the Fastnet.”
Is the Admiral’s Cup set to become a permanent fixture on the international sailing scene? “Every two years, it can become the world championship for the best boats on the planet, and thus regain its former lustre,” asserts Philippe Sérénon. “We are committed to two editions, 2025 and 2027, in Cowes,” adds Jeremy Wilton, who adds that some teams not present this year are already planning to take part in the 2027 edition, notably in Finland, Greece and France, where other yacht clubs have made no secret of their interest.
Photo : Paul Wyeth
