The Yacht Club de Monaco team, racing as Jolt 6 and Jolt 3, has won the 2025 Admiral\u2019s Cup after the Rolex Fastnet Race finale \u2013 and a waiting game until the final points could be confirmed.Monaco’s Jolt 3 team celebrate after moving into the lead of the Admiral’s Cup overall on the provisional results after the Rolex Fastnet Race.The Yacht Club de Monaco team of Jolt 6, skippered by Pierre Casiraghi and Jolt 3, skippered by Peter Harrison, has won the 2025 Admiral\u2019s Cup after a high tension finish to the event\u2019s conclusion, the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race.
\nMonaco finished with a 19-point advantage over the Royal Hong Kong YC entry after the leading boats in both the big boat AC1 and smaller AC2 fleets poured into Cherbourg in a frenetic night of finishes that saw over a dozen boats over the line within an hour from 2130 on Tuesday 29 July.
\nThe final deadline for protests is six hours after the last boat in the event has finished. As the slowest boat in the fleet (Hamburg\u2019s Edelweiss) wasn\u2019t due to finish until this evening \u2013 and there were rumours aplenty of potential protests on the Cherbourg docks as the big boats approached \u2013 organisers RORC did not immediately confirming the Monaco team as winners, with the crews were being equally circumspect.
\nMonaco\u2019s Jolt 3 team celebrate after moving into the lead of the Admiral\u2019s Cup overall on the provisional results after the Rolex Fastnet Race.
\nMonaco win Admiral\u2019s Cup
\nOcean racer Will Harris was navigating the smaller Jolt 6, which currently leads AC2 by just 2 minutes 45 seconds on corrected time in the provisional results. Harris explained on the dock straight after finishing:
\n\u201cWe were coming into this race in second place overall on the scoreboard with the Beau Ideal and Beau Geste team. And yeah, we think we\u2019ve just managed to beat them into the finish line there, but we\u2019ve still got to keep our fingers crossed and see how the other teams go.
\n\u201cWe know we\u2019ve done everything we can and we\u2019ll just have to see. But it\u2019s a big relief to be here at the finish line.\u201d
\nEd Baird helms with an all-star team on the rail of Jolt 3 during the Admiral\u2019s Cup. Photo: James Tomlinson\/RORC
\nAfter the win had been confirmed, Jolt 6 skipper Pierre Casiraghi said: \u201cHonestly, I still can\u2019t believe what we\u2019ve achieved.
\n\u201cTo win the Admiral\u2019s Cup in its revival year and with Monaco\u2019s first ever participation is beyond words. I\u2019m not a professional helm and this was the most exhausting race I\u2019ve ever done.
\n\u201cWe knew the Fastnet would be decisive and our team executed it flawlessly. Will Harris, our navigator, was just phenomenal, he didn\u2019t miss a beat. From the moment we exited the Solent everything went to plan. This was a true team effort, from sailors to shore crew.
\n\u201cRight now, I\u2019m exhausted and can\u2019t imagine doing another offshore race on a 42-footer any time soon, but this has been a magical journey. The Admiral\u2019s Cup is an extraordinary event. I\u2019m so proud to have been part of it.\u201d
\nJolt 6 in the RORC Admiral\u2019s Cup 2025. Photo: James Tomlinson\/RORC
\nAmerica\u2019s Cup legend Ed Baird was helming the 52-footer Jolt 3. \u201cThe points were close. We had to do well in our division and so did our 40-footer. Sounds like they are going to finish okay,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI would say there hasn\u2019t been a lot of tension amongst the team but everybody was very aware [of how close it is]. We have been racing both divisions of boats since April in Cowes, and we knew the whole time that it was going to come down to very, very tight margins.\u201d
\nSeconds in it
\nThose tight margins initially dropped the Italian team out of the podium places in the provisional results.
\n\u201c[The Fastnet Race] was very enjoyable and I think that we had a possibility to have a great result. Unfortunately, we lost by 55 seconds after 697 miles and that\u2019s a little sad, but I think that I\u2019m proud about what we were able to do,\u201d said Vasco Vascotto, skipper of the newly launched WallyRocket 51 Django, the YCCS AC1 entry.
\nDJANGO WR51 rounds Fastnet Rock. Photo: Kurt Arrigo\/Rolex
\n\u201cBut this was day 11 in the water for this boat and we were able to go around that Fastnet and that was a big challenge but we did it.\u201d
\nHowever, when the small boat Django JPK finished 3rd in class some 12 hours later, the YCCS team moved back up to 3rd overall \u2013 the Italian AC2 team just 18 seconds ahead of the New Zealanders in 4th.
\nAdmiral\u2019s Cup Fastnet finale
\nThe Admiral\u2019s Cup fleet had its own start for the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race, with the 15 two boat teams scored on handicap in the big boat (AC1) and smaller AC2 class. Twenty-nine boats started, after the dismantling of Red Bandit (GER) during the inshore series. Ino Noir (GBR) also had to retire from the Fastnet due to electronics issues.
\nJolt 3 leads a tightly packed group of finishers to the Admiral\u2019s Cup fleet in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: RORC
\nGoing into the Fastnet, after one double-scoring Channel race and three days of inshore racing, the Royal Hong Kong YC team led on 36 points, ahead of Monaco on 44, the Italian team of Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in third on 59 points, and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron\u2019s team at 76 points in fourth.
\nThe Rolex Fastnet Race counted for triple points, non-discardable, making some significant place changes possible on the overall leaderboard.
\nIntense racing
\nThe Admiral\u2019s Cup teams raced much of the 695-mile Fastnet course with the same intensity as the inshore series. \u201cIt was unbelievably intense racing with the other fast four teams,\u201d said Harris. \u201cWe were racing like match racing the whole way around, neck on neck crossing each other really closely.\u201d
\nA dominant north-westerly breeze also turned the Fastnet track into a 700-mile windward-leeward course. \u201cA disappointing [result] in the end for us, but it was a cracking Fastnet race. Some beautiful conditions \u2013 and just a giant windward-leeward, but just a little shutdown at the end that tripped us up,\u201d said Miles Seddon, navigator on Beau Geste, the big boat in the Hong Kong team.
\nBeau Geste\u00a0finished 9th in AC1 in the Fastnet, and the smaller Beau Geste 8th, dropping the Hong Kong team off the top spot.
\nThe smaller boat in the Hong Kong Admiral\u2019s Cup team, Beau Ideal, rounding the Rock during the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: Kurt Arrigo\/Rolex
\nRacing focussed on a single class, instead of competing against the whole 444-boat Fastnet fleet, also changed the strategy for the Admiral\u2019s Cup teams. \u201cWhen you\u2019re racing IRC in general, you\u2019ve just got to sail the boat as well as you can sail it. If it\u2019s your conditions, it\u2019s your conditions.
\n\u201cBut when you\u2019re racing the Admiral\u2019s Cup fleet, you\u2019re just racing that fleet and you\u2019re really focused on where they are all the time, which is quite draining,\u201d explained Seddon.
\n\u201cJust constantly keeping tabs on where everybody in the fleet is and how you\u2019re going to manage them \u2013 and that\u2019s 13 boats to manage. So it\u2019s tough You\u2019re constantly aware. I went into it knowing what we needed to do and then you\u2019re constantly recomputing and looking at weather tracker updates, so you don\u2019t get a lot of rest.
\n\u201cUltimately,with the finish here in Cherbourg, it\u2019s fantastic. But it just adds that extra tidal gate and that\u2019s brutal \u2013 it can be a real bonus, but it can take away as well.\u201d
\nDutch win in AC2
\nHuge celebrations for the Van Uden crew after winning AC3 in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: RORC
\nThe biggest celebration of Tuesday night unquestionably belonged to the Dutch team on Rost-Van Uden, winners of AC2 overall, whose supporters were out in force showering the team in traditional flowers, champagne and song.
\nThe Rost-Van Uden team is led by Gerd-Jan Poortman, who was part of the winning Dutch team in the 1999 Admiral\u2019s Cup, and made up largely of young sailors from Rotterdam. To take the class win against an entry list stacked with pro America\u2019s Cup sailors, Olympic medalists and world champions was a phenomenal achievement for this team.
\nAdmiral\u2019s Cup return
\nThere\u2019s no question that for the crews, the Admiral\u2019s Cup has been a hit. \u201cIt\u2019s been really, really good. The racing in our division AC2 was just super close, you never really knew how it was going to pan out until the end \u2013 that was the way it should be,\u201d said America\u2019s Cup winner Dean Barker. Barker was part of a very high level crew on Callisto, the small boat in the New Zealand team. The Kiwis finished 4th overall.
\n\u201cThe Channel race was just amazing. Like that was some of the best downwind sailing I\u2019ve probably done in my life actually. And then, the Fastnet on a 42-footer, it\u2019s challenging,\u201d
\nCallisto put in a strong performance for NZL in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race for the Admiral\u2019s Cup 2025. Photo: James Tomlinson\/RORC
\n\u201cThe [format] adds a huge dynamic to the event because there\u2019s a lot of inshore races specifically and not a lot have a strong offshore component. So to mix it up is actually really challenging for all the teams,\u201d added Barker.
\n\u201cThe equal weighting between inshore and offshore, I think it\u2019s a really good way to do it. You need to be able to be strong on both. So I really enjoyed it. It\u2019s hard \u2013 but at the same time it\u2019s what makes it rewarding in the end.\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s been absolutely fantastic. The heritage of it, the history, it\u2019s been a great event,\u201d said Seddon.
\n\u201cThe lead up to it was fantastic. Hopefully it goes on strength to strength and really showcases the sport because it does everything \u2013 it does offshore, it does inshore and it\u2019s team racing as well. So it\u2019s been a really, really good event. I thoroughly enjoyed it.\u201d
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The Yacht Club de Monaco team, racing as Jolt 6 and Jolt 3, has won the 2025 Admiral\u2019s Cup after the Rolex Fastnet Race finale \u2013 and a waiting game until the final points could be confirmed.Monaco’s Jolt 3 team … <\/p>\n