The start of the Morgan Cup Race on June 27 was a spectacular sight with over 100 boats beating to windward into the Western Solent for the fourth race of the Cowes Offshore Racing Series and the 11th race of the 2025 RORC Season’s Points Championship —the world’s largest offshore racing series. Organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, in association with the Royal Yacht Squadron and Royal Thames Yacht Club, the event drew a truly international fleet with majority of the teams from the UK and France, joined by an international set from Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and the USA.

Tim Webb’s Swan 42 Luna was the overall winner under IRC for the Morgan Cup, second was Tom Kneen’s JPK 1180 Sunrise IV and completing the overall podium was Taavet Hinrikus’ MAT 1220 Nola, skippered by Margus Uudam with a team from Estonia and Finland.

The Morgan Cup will be presented to Tim Webb and Luna at the Royal Thames Yacht Club prizegiving and as a member of the Club celebrating their 250th anniversary, it will be a tremendous occasion. “It’s a brilliant evening,” smiled Tim. “You don’t take the trophies home—but you do drink champagne from them. We’ll treasure that moment.”

Multihull Line Honours was taken by Peter Coote’s Dazcat 1295 Slinky Malinki. Eight of the top ten monohulls to finish the race are destined for the Admiral’s Cup. Monohull Line Honours went to the wire with Ron O’Hanley’s Cookson 50 Privateer, which will be representing the Royal Irish YC, crossing the line just 43 seconds ahead of Eric de Turckheim’s NMD54 Teasing Machine from the YC de France.

Mark Brown’s JPK 1010 Jetpack won IRC Four and leads the class for the 2025 season. After a hard fought battle, runner-up was Sigma 38 Sam, skippered by Peter Hobbs with Mitchel Fowler’s JPK 1010 Jaasap in third and Tim Goodhew & Kelvin Matthews racing Sun Fast 3200 Cora taking fourth.

Racing in IRC Three was RORC Griffin, the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s youth program, which has over forty sailors under 30 racing internationally. The team for the Morgan Cup, which will be taking on the Rolex Fastnet Race next July, is a crew of seven girls plus coach Hugh Brayshaw. RORC Griffin is co-skippered by Hebe Hemming and Nicole Hemeryk who is a world class youth dinghy sailor.

Four races have now been completed for the new Cowes Offshore Racing Series. The seven-race series counts the best five results for the races all starting from Cowes but does not include the Rolex Fastnet Race.

The Royal Ocean Racing Club is immensely grateful for the continued support and cooperation of both UK and French maritime authorities. As the RORC Season’s Points Championship progresses towards its pinnacle event—the Rolex Fastnet Race—the Club acknowledges the essential role that cross-channel coordination plays in safely managing races of this scale and complexity. With record numbers of entries and a truly international fleet, this partnership is more important than ever.

The RORC Series Points Championship continues with the La Trinité – Cowes Race starting from La Trinité-sur-Mer on July 6. Over 60 boats are expected for the eight edition of the 320nm race.