JPK Composites

The Breton yard that completed the IRC Grand Slam

JPK Composites builds cruiser-racers and fast cruisers in Larmor-Plage, Morbihan. The yard has won overall in the three major offshore IRC races — Fastnet, Rolex Middle Sea Race, and Rolex Sydney Hobart — with four different models.

From windsurfing to racing sailboats

Jean-Pierre Kelbert founded JPK Composites in 1992. A former European windsurfing champion (1988 and 1989), he started the business as a high-performance epoxy foam windsurf board shaping workshop. The shift to sailboats came in 2003 with the JPK 960, designed by naval architect Jacques Valer — a hard-chine planing boat that quickly established itself in IRC inshore and offshore racing. The Kelbert/Valer partnership has been the yard’s signature ever since.

The IRC Grand Slam

Four different JPK models have won overall in the three major offshore IRC classic races:

• Rolex Fastnet Race: 2013 (JPK 1010 "Night and Day", Pascal Loison); 2015 (JPK 1080 "Courrier du Léon", Géry Trentesaux); 2021 (JPK 1180 "Sunrise", Tom Kneen); 2025 (JPK 1050 "Léon", Jean-Pierre Kelbert and Alexis Loison).
• Rolex Middle Sea Race: 2017 (JPK 1080 "Bogatyr", Igor Rytov); 2018 (JPK 1180 "Courrier Recommandé", Géry Trentesaux).
• Rolex Sydney Hobart: 2024 (JPK 45 FC); 2025 (JPK 1030 "Min River", Jiang Lin and Alexis Loison; the JPK 1080 "BNC Léon" finishes 2nd overall).

The JPK 1080 was also named European Yacht of the Year 2015 (Performance Cruiser category) and IRC Yacht of the Year 2015.

Skysat on board

Preparation and equipment of JPK for offshore racing.