Organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club
17th July to 1st August 2025 – Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK
The Admiral’s Cup is back for 2025 and will be held biennially thereafter by the Royal Ocean Racing Club. Established in 1957, The Admiral’s Cup is honoured throughout the world of sailing as the unofficial world cup for offshore racing. Teams from Great Britain have been the most successful, winning the trophy on nine occasions. Germany has won four times, USA and Australia three times each, with Australia being the holders of this prized trophy. Victories have been achieved for France, Italy, the Netherlands and New Zealand.
“Bringing back the Admiral’s Cup is a wonderful way to celebrate the centenary of the Royal Ocean Racing Club,” commented RORC Commodore James Neville. “The chosen format for the 2025 Admiral’s Cup respects the tradition of the regatta, as well as choosing IRC Classes for boats that are competing offshore at the top level internationally. By announcing over two years before the start of the Admiral’s Cup, teams will have time to prepare for a fantastic event. The RORC aim is to attract teams from all over the world for the 2025 Admiral’s Cup.”
The 2025 Admiral’s Cup will be organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club from Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK. Racing will consist of a combination of inshore and offshore racing. Teams will comprise of two boats representing a Yacht Club or Country.
Director of the RORC Rating Office, Jason Smithwick commented on the type of boats that will be eligible for the 2025 Admiral’s Cup.
“IRC produces the most exciting and high performance rating system boats in the world and the Admiral’s Cup is a great opportunity to showcase our fleet,” commented Smithwick.
“The Admiral’s Cup Class IRC rating band and length range have been carefully selected to allow as many boat types to be eligible, while maintaining a compact group for each class in terms of performance and also size constraints for racing in the Solent and adjacent waters. The rating bands are purposely aimed to produce close racing so boats experience similar conditions throughout the wide range of races in the Admiral’s Cup.
“For Admiral’s Cup Class 1 there are the bigger boats with a length above 44ft, (13.41m) up to 56ft (17.20m), this range encompasses boats like the Cookson 50 and ubiquitous highly competitive IRC 52/TP 52 fleet as examples. The modest sized boats in Admiral’s Cup Class 2 ranges in length from 36ft (11.00m) up to 44ft (13.40m) and has many boat options with comparatively high performance, such as the MAT 1180, J/125, GP42, and Ker 46.”
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1989 Admiral's Cup Fleet @Rick Tomlinson