The Royal Ocean Racing Club will introduce a new trophy for the 2027 Admiral's Cup, the Corinthian Cup, rewarding teams that keep a tight limit on professional sailors. Not every strong campaign is built around hired guns. Some centre on family, some on youth, and some, as Royal Maas Yacht Club showed in 2025, on both at once.
The Dutch club fielded two very different boats that year: the De Graaf family's Ker 43 Baraka GP, and the youth-focused Ker 46 ROST Van Uden, skippered by Gerd-Jan Poortman. Together they finished sixth overall against a world-class fleet.
Van Uden's form in the Rolex Fastnet Race stood out above all. The Rotterdam Offshore Sailing Team won Admiral's Cup 1 on IRC corrected time, racing largely with sailors in their twenties or younger. Poortman brought a different kind of experience, having been part of the winning Dutch Admiral's Cup team back in 1999.
Baraka GP, meanwhile, was a pure family affair. Olivier de Graaf raced alongside his brother Dirk and their father Harmen, taking on some of the toughest crews in international offshore racing.
"Baraka GP is an experienced family team competing against the top crews. Van Uden is the youth team," said Olivier de Graaf. "From a Corinthian point of view, the combination is even stronger because our two-boat team brings family and youth together, many sailors that have graduated from ROST come to sail on Baraka GP."
Under the 2027 Notice of Race, an eligible team can carry no more than four World Sailing Group 3 sailors on its Admiral's Cup 1 boat, and no more than three on its Admiral's Cup 2 boat. Group 3 covers sailors whose professional work connects to racing or the marine industry, as distinct from Group 1 amateurs. The Corinthian Cup will go to whichever eligible two-boat team posts the lowest combined IRC score across the series.
The award is not a youth prize, nor is it reserved for all-amateur crews.
"We want the Admiral's Cup to remain the pinnacle of international offshore team racing, but it is equally important that there is a place for passionate amateur sailors and emerging talent," said RORC Sporting Director Ben Willows. "The Corinthian Cup recognises teams that combine those qualities with the preparation, commitment and skill required to compete at this level."
Willows stressed that this isn't about softening the competition. "Teams eligible for the Corinthian Cup will race against the same opposition, on the same courses and with the same opportunities to win the Admiral's Cup itself. We want to recognise the achievement of teams that perform at this level with fewer professional sailors."
Royal Maas is already looking ahead, with a two-boat return to the 2027 Admiral's Cup the stated goal, though no formal entry has been lodged yet and the programme is still taking shape.
First raced in 1957, the Admiral's Cup turns 70 in 2027. The anniversary edition runs from 13 to 28 July, finishing with the Rolex Fastnet Race from Cowes to Cherbourg-en-Cotentin.
As Willows made plain, the racecourse won't care who's chasing which trophy.
