The Admiral's Cup is an international yachting regatta. For many years it was known as the unofficial world championship of offshore racing. The Admiral's Cup regatta was started in 1957 and was normally a biennial event (occurring in odd-numbered years) which was competed for between national teams. However the event was not staged in 2001 and was last held in 2003. It was cancelled at short notice in 2005. After this hiatus the Admiral's Cup returns in 2025 which 15 teams entered from around the world. The 2003 event did not follow the normal format and allowed entries from any yacht club affiliated to a national authority, thus allowing the possibility of several teams per country. The regatta was based at

Cowes Cowes () is an England, English port, seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east bank. The two towns are linked b ...

on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

off southern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and was organised by the

Royal Ocean Racing Club The Royal Ocean Racing Club is a club in London with a further clubhouse and office in Cowes, Isle of Wight. It was established in 1925 as the Ocean Racing Club, as a result of a race to the Fastnet Rock from Cowes, finishing in Plymouth. It re ...

History: 1957–1999

From 1957 to 1999 the cup was competed for between national teams, each having three boats. Initially only

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

took part but, in later years, many other teams also participated. The

Fastnet race The Fastnet Race is a biennial offshore yacht race organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) of the United Kingdom with the assistance of the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes and the City of Cherbourg in France. The race is named after th ...

was part of the Admiral's Cup during this time. The Australians won for the first time in 1967, the winning boat—Mercedes III—designed by Ted Kaufman and Bob Miller (later Ben Lexcen), who went on to success in the America's Cup. In 1971 the

British Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. Modern pri ...

Edward Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 ...

, captained one of the winning boats.

Recent history

The 2003 event, the last held, was planned to be based in

Dún Laoghaire Dún Laoghaire ( , ) is a suburban coastal town in County Dublin in Ireland. It is the administrative centre of the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown. The town was built up alongside a small existing settlement following 1816 legislation th ...

in Ireland, but this was changed at short notice for reasons that are still unclear. In addition, instead of being a competition between national teams, the event was competed between

yacht club A yacht club is a boat club specifically related to yachting. Description Yacht clubs are mostly located by the sea, although there some that have been established at a lake or riverside locations. Yacht or sailing clubs have either a mar ...

s, each with two boats. The 2005 event was cancelled only months before the event was to be held, after only two teams had entered. Although the RORC (Royal Ocean Racing Club) was looking into reviving the event for 2011, this did not happen. RORC has announced the event will run in July 2025.

Winners

References

External links

The Admiral's Cup
(on th
RORC
site) {{Authority control Recurring sporting events established in 1957 Sport on the Isle of Wight Sailing competitions in the United Kingdom Offshore sailing competitions