‘Racing yacht design is advancing rapidly but the growing gap between mainstream production boats and more extreme specialist designs is putting pressure on handicap systems, event formats and participation,’ says Frédéric Bouvier of J/Composites. From low freeboard and shallow, beamy cockpits to sailplans with square-topped mainsails and giant asymmetric kites, each capable of creating a partial eclipse, through to specialist double-handed racing yachts that are designed to promote shorthanded crews, these are exciting times for the racing scene. The recent success of some scow hull configurations have been among the latest developments to challenge what we consider as normal, yet despite their unconventional looks their growing popularity in some areas suggests that the sport is on the verge of yet another new trend.

But at what price?
Bouvier, a lifelong racing sailor who has clocked up many sea miles both inshore and offshore, says he is the first to acknowledge and celebrate the rapid and exciting growth in design.

As J/Composites’ commercial director his day job takes him to the heart of the sport where their own models frequently go head-to-head with some of the most extreme designs on the racing circuit. And while he freely admits that his prime commercial focus is on J/Boats, the combination of this and his long and sustained involvement as a hands-on participant in the sport provides both perspective and a useful datum to understand and comment on where things are heading.

‘It is definitely an exciting world right now with one of the widest ranges of options for owners and crew that we’ve seen, but this rapid, and at times extreme development, also comes at a cost,’ he says. ‘The technical improvements within racing design have been fascinating but they have also been responsible for a polarisation of sailing. Supporters of more radical designs would argue that innovation has always driven the sport forward and that rating systems must evolve accordingly. However, the result is that it has become difficult if not impossible at times to provide equitable racing across a range of similarly sized boats that were designed to excel in different ways. The problem now is that often we’re asking our rating systems to compare bananas with carrots.

‘Take the current and growing trend in scow designs as an example. There is no question that they are capable of raising the performance bar, they’ve already proved it. The way in which the limitations of these designs, particularly upwind, have been overcome is fascinating. But this is also a configuration that is very hard to build competitively as a production boat for mainstream racing as the performance benefits depend on creating large, voluminous structures down to a weight.

‘This in turn leads to an expensive path with boats built from advanced lightweight materials which in turn pushes the price up, ‘he continues. ‘And in simple terms, extreme designs, exciting as they are, have never been a good way of attracting people in big numbers.’

It is easy to see his point, but surely the argument is that rating systems are there to even out those differences?

Bouvier believes that handicap systems are now being pushed harder than ever to provide equitable racing between boats with very different performance profiles across a wide range of conditions and disciplines. And while the argument isn’t a new one, he and many others are concerned at what effect this will have on the sport and where the solutions lie.

According to the J/Composites team there are ways of tackling the issues. They see advantages and opportunities in their long term and wide-ranging experience where they have been immersed in the thick of strong domestic racing in France and in the varied fleets on the international scene. The ability to make their own assessments in how different configurations could be catered for to provide close equitable racing, by studying their own fleet of almost 200 J/99s, is a good starting point.

‘One of our goals here is to see whether it would be possible to bring a standard J/99 with, say, an alloy mast, back into contention with the more advanced specifications by adapting a handicap. If we can, then our longer-term goal is to apply this to other areas of our range.

‘To achieve this, we will be focussing on the J/99 to start with as it is a very versatile design which has proved to be successful in both fully crewed and shorthanded events across both inshore and offshore racing.

‘The design has also been pushed hard by some stiff competition too, so we know the data is good and that the results prove consistently that the J/99 is a highly adaptable and competitive design. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, after all it has smooth polar curves rather than those of more extreme designs that have performance spikes. Naturally, this is one of the clearest indicators to a good all-round performer.’

Making close comparisons across a varied fleet and establishing what works and why started at the Spi Ouest regatta in La Trinité this spring.

‘We had 10 closely matched J/99s in the middle of the IRC2 fleet which gave us a good datum,’ he continues. ‘All the boats in this class were of a similar overall concept and were separated by just a few points on rating which meant that the racing was about getting a good start, taking the right shifts, making good manoeuvres at the leeward mark and so on. Success was not defined by your handicap figure.

‘But what was particularly interesting was comparing our performance in the water and on handicap to boats of a similar size but with very different design concepts such as the new scows and others that were in IRC1. Because we had rolling starts on the same course we were able to look at the numbers and make good comparisons. And what was clear was that while they were quicker on the water we would have beaten them on corrected time by a big margin. And the reason is that these boats were having to race on a windward leeward course with a full crew which is at odds with what these offshore boats are designed for.

‘One of our main concerns is that in trying to account for this disparity with the more extreme, grand prix designs, that handicap systems forget about the bigger number of competitors in the mainstream classes. And when I say this, I mean we are afraid for the sport as a whole, not for our business because if that does happen it actually opens a door for companies like ours that have a strong following to do our own thing – but that’s not what we want.

‘The Admiral’s Cup is a good example. There is no doubt that it was a huge success, great to watch and I’m sure great to be a part of. But the risk is that it is driving IRC into a very professional, expensive area and away from the mainstream. The same can be highlighted under ORC with latest new design campaigns. The investment into development, especially AI assisted, has set another standard to challenge the loopholes of the handicap system’

J/Boats has another way of collecting data, making comparisons across an impressively wide range of models and making their point thanks to their own well-attended regattas such as the J/Cup Europe.

But Bouvier and J/Composites believe that the future of keelboat racing is not simply about the numbers. Events need to be fun too. And while you might think this is a case of stating the obvious and unrelated to the technical arguments, Bouvier and the team argue that they are linked. They argue that time, money and commitment that has been invested to refine grand prix designs and the way that they are sailed has increased pressure to succeed which in turn has raised expectations at the cost of general enjoyment.

‘The simple fact is that if a crew’s goal is solely to win, then only one crew will be happy,’ he says. ‘Aside from the social events which are important of course, the changes that have taken place in the way that events are structured plays into whether people enjoy their racing. Spi Ouest is a good example again as it is typical of other events. The total number of competitors has reduced but the number of classes has increased which dilutes the racing while making it more complex to run for the organisers. It doesn’t make sense on any front. We believe that the answer is to bring more competitors together in fewer classes, but this means addressing the format of the racing itself along with tackling handicap issues for boats that are of different concepts.

For Bouvier, the problem is not only technical. Once boats become harder to compare fairly, events become more fragmented, more expensive and, ultimately, less enjoyable for the majority of competitors.

‘No one here is pretending it is easy, but we do believe that it is necessary for the health of the sport.’

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For me and the many other race crew who spent much of March in the Caribbean, it was an unforgettable month of sunshine, smiles and strong winds, and a wonderful reminder of why the sport of superyacht racing is so important to this very special part of the industry

The Caribbean superyacht regatta season got under way in its usual style with the Antigua Superyacht Challenge, where a fleet of 10 sailing superyachts gathered at Nelson’s Dockyard. The programme began with an optional Round Antigua Race: a 46.8-mile anticlockwise lap of the island, or the shorter Part-Island Race. Pursuit-format series races filled the following days and rewarded precise timing, boat handling and strategic decision-making.

This four-day event remains proudly non-commercial, with the emphasis on safe, competitive racing and delivering an unforgettable experience that people want to come back to. Fleet diversity defines this regatta, from towering schooners to modern super-sloops, and devising a format that pitches these designs against one another on equal footing is exactly what the Superyacht Racing Association (SYRA) and the ORCsy rating system is about.

What unites the fleet isn’t just scale or design, but a shared commitment to racing well, safely and fairly, plus an equally strong emphasis on the camaraderie that defines superyacht regatta participation, both on the water and ashore. It’s a unique environment – if you’ve not yet been a part of it, give it a go.

Participants and spectators were able to follow the fleet and on-water action with the recently updated TracTrac software, and we saw it used for the first time in Antigua. A collaboration between TracTrac, ORC and SYRA helped develop the system so sailors, owners and guests can see how they’re doing on the racecourse and against the opposition in real time. You can assess your projected ranking during racing and see provisional results as yachts cross the finish line. The software shows sailors where they’re gaining, and losing, with greater accuracy than ever before, and really adds another layer to the experience.

For ORC and SYRA, the improved software will be vital for data gathering, allow for better race monitoring, performance reviews and rule observance, and we’ll also be able to replay and study on-water situations.

Ashore in Antigua, over 300 sailors – owners, guests and crew – came together for the prize giving. The Gosnell Trophy, awarded to the yacht best representing the spirit of the regatta, went to the 65- metre schooner and SYRA-member Adix, racing in her first Superyacht Challenge.

‘It’s a real honour to receive the Gosnell Trophy,’ said Captain Oliver Bell. ‘For us this regatta has never just been about results, it’s about the spirit of the event and the people involved. To have the other teams vote for us makes it incredibly special… the atmosphere on the water and ashore has been brilliant. I’m incredibly proud of our crew. Everyone pulled together and pushed the boat hard in some demanding conditions.’

There was also a standout performance from the 66m Hetairos, another SYRA member, which not only won the Stan Pearson Trophy but set a new race and monohull course record for the Round Antigua, completing it in three hours, 20 minutes and 35 seconds. For the record achievement, the Hetairos team were awarded the captain’s weight in rum.

Another boat making an impression this season was Spirit 111 Geist, new to both the Caribbean circuit and to SYRA membership. Lymington local and ex- America’s Cup sailor Matt Cornwell was aboard, alongside several other faces from the Solent, and he summed up their experience: ‘For the owner, captain Justin Pope and the team, racing the boat in Caribbean waters was something we’d really been looking forward to. Racing two events back-to-back, starting with the Antigua Superyacht Challenge and then the St Barths Bucket, was a great way to maximise our adventure in the tropics. Both are longstanding events with pedigree, they’re well organised and managed, but individual in their styles. We had 15-25kts every day, big seas, warm winds, great courses, and enjoyed an incredible experience that only superyacht racing can provide.’

In St Barths, the Bucket Regatta had its largest fleet since 2015. Forty-one yachts were on the list, with 34 racing. The boats were split across nine classes, including two Corinthian Spirit (CS) non-spinnaker classes. The CS has really become popular - it’s a “turn up as you are” kind of thing, maybe flying in a couple of additional talents to help the permanent crew. It provides an entry level to the superyacht racing scene without the fullon commitment, and it’s encouraging how many boats have liked what they saw and come back fully race ready the next year.

There were a couple of notable additions to the Bucket. A schooner class made its debut, bringing together three striking three-masted gaff-rigged yachts – a first for the regatta. And there was an optional fourth day of racing, giving teams more racing time and a chance to assess the competition before things got serious. With Sunday’s racing ultimately abandoned due to strong winds, that extra day proved a good call and it looks likely to become a permanent fixture.

Racing followed the pursuit format under the ORCsy rule. Topping their classes at the end of the week were WallyCento V, Swan 90 Freya, Swan 100 Onyx, Geist, Whisper, M5, Perseus 3 and Adix.

This year’s coveted Bucket trophy went to the mighty Hetairos team, who narrowly took back victory on count after a fierce battle with, Aquarius 2 (Royal Huisman) and Maximus (Vitters Shipyard). The trio of behemoths spent much of the event with only seconds between them and provided a captivating spectacle.

The 2026 Bucket was the first event for Tony Rey in his new role as SYRA president and he joined Maximus for the action: ‘Simply sailing a 60m ketch in 15-20kts of breeze in the Caribbean feels like a spectacular dream. Racing in the Gazelles class with the three big ketches, along with three iconic monster sloops, all in close proximity around islands and marks, borders on unreasonable! Sometimes sailing these yachts feels like racing a school bus on a motocross track, but we got it done, and safely.’

For Rey, it was particularly valuable to see the ORCsy prove its worth. ‘Race one had Maximus, Aquarius 2 and Hetairos all finishing overlapped after 23 miles of hard racing. After two races, we were in a three-way tie for first. We’ll have to wait until Bucket 2027 to properly break the tie on the water!’

Undeniably, whether you are stepping onto a start line for the first time or returning after many seasons on the circuit, the world of superyacht racing offers something truly special. ‘And SYRA exists to support that world,’ says Rey, ‘It’s a privilege to see these regattas from both sides of the sail. At its heart, SYRA is about community. Membership is not merely about rules or administration; it is about having a say, contributing experience, and helping to shape the future of sailing superyacht racing.’

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The café next to the RORC office in Antigua buzzes all morning. Sailors stop by for coffee, conversations blend together and race talk moves easily from table to table. Over the course of an hour, Deborah Fish shares her thoughts on offshore racing, leadership, and the realities behind international events like the RORC Caribbean 600, speaking as both commodore of the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) and as an active, successful offshore sailor.

Fish did not grow up sailing. She started the sport later than most, in her early 30s, when she finally had the chance to race offshore. ‘I started quite late,’ she says. ‘But once I did the Fastnet Race I was completely hooked.’ Since then, offshore racing has remained a major part of her life. She first raced with the RORC in 1999 and has completed the Rolex Fastnet Race 13 times, as well as many of the other major offshore events, including the Rolex Middle Sea Race, the Sydney Hobart, and the Caribbean 600.

That offshore background shapes how Fish approaches her role as commodore. Elected in January 2024, she became the first woman to hold the position. She describes it as a role that found her rather than the other way around, at a moment when the club was entering an important phase with the long-awaited return of the Admiral’s Cup and a strong international racing calendar.

Despite the title of commodore, Fish remains deeply connected to the sailor’s perspective. She continues to race actively, often double-handed, and believes that leadership credibility comes from understanding what competitors experience on the water.

‘You have to be a commodore for everyone,’ she explains. ‘From the maxi owners to the Contessa 32s. You need to understand the whole fleet.’ That understanding is not abstract. It comes from listening, conversations on the dock, racing the same courses and recognising that decisions made ashore directly affect those made at sea.

Balancing feedback is not always easy. ‘There will always be someone who wants one thing and someone who wants the opposite,’ she says. ‘The challenge for me is to work out what’s best for the fleet as a whole.’

‘As captain of the whole crew, I also have a team behind me within the RORC. It comes down to how you build a great working relationship between the committee and the staff. This allows us to balance the racer’s perspective, the customer’s point of view and to the staff’s professional perspective. Bounce between those. Take your knowledge and experience, your views, and try to do what’s best for everyone.’

Nowhere is that more visible than in the Caribbean. ‘Here you really see it,’ Fish explains. ‘There’s a small army of staff and volunteers.’ The RORC team makes a point of meeting every boat, creating a welcoming atmosphere both on and off the water. ‘That’s why people love it,’ she says. ‘There’s so much going on and the volunteers are a huge part of that experience. They’re the people you interact with.’

Antigua itself plays a key role in fostering that feeling. Fish describes it as welcoming and safe, with a racecourse that is as beautiful as it is demanding. Fourteen islands, each with its own wind effects, create a race that is never straightforward.

‘It’s constantly interesting,’ she says. ‘And it’s exactly that combination, the challenge on the water and the people behind the scenes, that makes this race what it is.’

The Caribbean 600 is a race that Fish knows well and describes as ‘the most enjoyable 600-mile race’. Now sailing it for the fourth time, she knows its rhythm intimately. ‘You move from one navigation decision to the next, island after island. And with very little sleep.’

‘Offshore racing teaches you how to make decisions under pressure,’ she says. ‘Do you put more sail up to go faster, or do you hold back because the risk is too high? You’re always balancing performance, safety and consequences. It’s a very good life skill.’

This year, Fish is racing aboard Sedem, a Pegasus 50 owned by Dutch sailors Astrid de Vin and Roeland Franssens. The team’s journey to Antigua already reflects the broader logistics behind the race. Sedem arrived in the Caribbean via the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC ), sailing down through the Canaries before crossing the Atlantic. After the race, the yacht will return to Europe by ship.

‘They’ve been cruising the Caribbean,’ Fish explains, ‘and the boat will go back on transport with Sevenstar to Europe.’ Time, wear and tear, safety and predictability all play a role in the decision to ship a yacht rather than sail it back across an ocean. ‘Sailing a boat back can take weeks,’ Fish says. ‘It puts a lot of strain on the boat and there’s often pressure to be somewhere by a certain date.’

Offshore races like the Caribbean 600 depend on international participation, which in turn depends on reliable yacht transport. With only a handful of yachts based permanently in the Caribbean, shipping is essential to keeping the event truly international. ‘And that’s not just about moving a boat,’ she says. A modern offshore racing programme travels with containers full of sails, spare parts, tools and safety equipment. It often includes support boats such as RIBs and, in larger programmes, entire teams. At the top end of the fleet, the scale increases dramatically.

‘Some campaigns involve 45 people,’ Fish says. ‘That’s a whole organisation on the move.’ From feeding and housing the crew to managing equipment and maintaining schedules, the logistical challenge is significant. She smiles as she explains what that really means in practice. ‘Even something as simple as feeding the crew becomes a logistical exercise. There’s always someone who’s allergic to something, someone who doesn’t eat tomatoes, someone who needs to be somewhere else the next day.’

Transport offers certainty, not only that the yacht arrives safely, but that the entire campaign arrives together and on schedule. Without that certainty, Fish believes international offshore racing would look very different. For races like the Caribbean 600, where only a small number of yachts are based locally, transport is not an optional extra but a fundamental part of making the race possible. International participation is what gives races like the Caribbean 600 their character and that internationalism depends heavily on logistics. ‘Yacht transport is absolutely key,’ she says. Time constraints, wear and tear, safety and the sheer reality of modern life mean that very few owners can afford to sail their boats back and forth across oceans between seasons.

Long-term planning is also evident in the partnership between the RORC and Sevenstar Yacht Transport. From Fish’s perspective the interests align naturally. ‘We have a common goal,’ she says. ‘Making the events the best they can be for sailors.’

While a race might begin a week before the start for organisers and competitors, Sevenstar’s involvement and planning begin months earlier and continue beyond the finish line, when yachts, containers and teams move on to the next stage of their season.

Looking beyond individual races, Fish is deeply invested in the future of offshore sailing. One of the initiatives she is most proud of is the Griffin Project, a youth programme designed to bring young sailors into offshore racing. Open to sailors aged 18 to 30, the programme has already attracted hundreds of applicants from around the world. Selection is based on merit, attitude and willingness to learn, not gender. ‘When you select on that,’ Fish says, ‘you forget gender and you end up 50-50.’ The aim is simple: the long-term health of the sport. ‘Our average member is older,’ she explains. ‘If we want offshore racing to thrive, we need young people coming through.’

That same thinking extends to diversity more broadly. Visible role models matter. ‘If everyone you see in a sport is male, you think: this isn’t for me. A good mix changes that.’

For Deborah Fish, leadership remains inseparable from participation. ‘You only need two boats to make a race,’ she says with a smile. But to keep those races alive, international, competitive and meaningful requires far more than what happens between the start gun and the finish line. It requires planning, trust, logistics and people who understand the sport inside and out.

Deborah Fish is one of them.

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