Admirals Cup: Splits emerge as the fleet sorts itself out on Day 2
by Richard Gladwell in Cowes 23 Jul 12:03 NZST
Callisto - AC2 - Admirals' Cup - Day 2 - Inshore Racing - July 22, 2025 © Richard Gladwell - Sail-World.com/nz
The 30 boat fleet competing in the 2025 Admirals' Cup have begun to sort themselves into a top group, which has begun a break away from the peleton.
After two days racing Hong Kong, Monaco, Italy and New Zealand have sailed themsleves into a tight group at the top of the points table, with eight points covering the top four teams.
Following the top group is Sweden in 5th on 44pts followed by Australia 6pts further back on 50pts and the first British team 7th overall on 56pts.
Today's racing consisted of two races - a short and long inshore race around channel markers. The usual English summer has returned, with the long heatwave now but a memory.
Sailing in the typical Solent conditions - passing showers, and 15-20kts from the SW, the fleet enjoyed some great and close racing for which the Admirals' Cup has always been renowned.
This is the revived Admirals Cup regatta - last sailed in 2003. While the fleet are reported by country, the reality is that these are club teams, in an endeavour to get world offshore sailing championship back on its feet. However of the 15 teams there are 12 nations represented, so it is close to the original model, devised by three former Admirals of the Royal Ocean Racing Club.
The 30 boat fleet is split into two divisions - AC1 and AC2 colloquially known as the "40 and 50fters".
Most of the AC1 fleet ("50fters") also compete on the TP52 circuit, making team formation a much easier task then it was in the Admirals Cup heyday. Back then designs were optimised for the Admirals's Cup conditions. New boats were built, older ones given a birthday, and keenly contested trials were held. Often team selectors had to made a tough decision as to whether or not to choose a "small boat" team - meaning they might choose a team rating right on the minimum size permitted, for what was, and still is a teams racing trophy.
And of course, they had to make a decision as to whether they stayed with the results of the national trial series, or threw the trial results to the wind and picked the team they thought would wind, and damn the consequences.
The revived series started on Saturday with the "short offshore race" more properly title the Channel Race, which scores double points. Today's racing - like all inshore racing scores just single points, with the final race of the series - the Rolex Fastnet Race scoring triple points.
It's been 42 years since I last sailed in the Admirals' Cup, and to the surprise of no-one, the Solent hasn't changed. Grey skies, passing showers, wind against the very serious tide, and plenty of shifts in direction and strength.
"It rained and it was sunny; and it was rough and it was flat; and it was shifts and it was tide; and it was a lot of yachting. If you love yachting and you love weather and those sort of things, then the Solent is a pretty cool place to come and have quite an adventure, that's for sure," said Callisto crew member," Mike Sanderson.
The day was dominated by two boats, Jolt 3 (Monaco) and Callisto (New Zealand).
Callisto gained control of both races, by getting a good start and then keeping on contact with the top three boats, before making their move.
"We got a couple of really nice starts. We kept it simple, and maybe lost a bit at time for being too simple," "We were a bit concerned that the first inshore race would be light and more windy for the second," Sanderson told Sail-World.
Sanderson said they worked their way through a typical Solent menu today. "We saw 11-23kts of breeze, and 70° of windshift across the day. It rained and it was sunny; and it was rough and it was flat; and it was shifts and it was tide; and it was a lot of yachting. If you love yachting and you love weather and those sort of things, then the Solent is a pretty cool place to come and have quite an adventure, that's for sure."
Callisto did some practice starts on Monday to get them back into an inshore racing mindset after the opening short offshore race on Saturday and Sunday.
"We kept it pretty simple, maybe a little bit too simple at times."
"We lost quite a chunk by not committing to our to the jib top. We were reasonably conservative on our sail inventory today, just to try and cover ourselves, as the forecast was pretty wide."
"We were quite concerned about how light the first windward leeward race might be, and then how windy the harbour course could end up being. So we had a very, all rounded inventory on board today, and that left us a little bit vulnerable on a couple of the reaches, and where we lost a chunk of places a couple of times. But it paid out in the it paid off in the end. So we were super pleased."
Sanderson says that helmsman former America's Cup skipper Dean Barker is going well. "Even though we were going 30 kts slower than he's used to," Sanderson quipped. "He's always been very good at getting boats like this off the start line. And he's a very fast and clever helmsman. We just need to remember how dominant they were with the Team New Zealand TP52 back in the day. So he's done a lot of it."
While Callisto may be dominating the 40fter fleet, the Admirals' Cup has always been about the performance of the slower boats in the team, and that is proving to be the case again.
Sanderson believes that the Fastnet Race will again be the make or break of Admirals' Cup aspirations for all teams.
"What we've got to do is be in the hunt come Saturday. With triple points on the line, the Admirals' Cup has always been decided in the Fastnet Race. No-one ever goes into the Fastnet Race with it being a slam dunk. And to win the Cup, the target for all teams is to be in the hunt come Saturday."
"We're doing everything we can to to just try and get some some solid team points on the board," Sanderson added.
Jolt 3 placed second in Race 2, and went one better to win the second harbour race of the day. Where Jolt 3 was noted for their consistency, others in the 50ft (AC1 fleet) were in more of a muddle, with only Django managing to hold their end up, posting a couple of thirds in both Race 2 and Race 3.
Overall Monaco (YC de Monaco) tops the Admirals' Cup leaderboard, with Hong Kong second overall.
Inshore racing continues on Wednesday, with lighter winds forecast.
Tracking: Track the fleet via TracTrac
Live results here
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