Events
No introduction necessary
The granddaddy of them all and the model upon which so many great international regattas have been based... Cowes Week is approaching a rather significant birthday
It’s one of the most modern regattas in the world. Yes, that’s right, we are talking about Cowes Week which will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2026. It is of course known around the world as one of the most challenging regattas in sailing, partly because of the fabulous racing conditions in the Solent and partly because of the relentless nightlife. That Solent tide, which gained a reputation for itself in the days when everyone wanted sanitised Admiral’s Cup racecourses, is now back in favour, as just another challenge on a demanding racecourse. Cowes Week has retained its global stature by evolving and it continues to balance the inherent ethos of the event – which is regatta racing around the Solent on orienteering courses – along with multi-race days for some of the small one-design classes where the owners want the majority of their racing to be on windward/leeward courses. The J/70 class, as an example, has a 12- race schedule over the first four days starting and finishing at the famous Royal Yacht Squadron line, with a committee boat delivering a middle windward/leeward race each day.
72 SEAHORSE
For most classes, however, owners still want the programme built around a single race each day because, as the event organisers are always proclaiming, it is a regatta not a world championship. That said, the event’s ethos is world-class regatta racing and Cowes Week now has the most sophisticated course setting software in the world, an investment made over the years to avoid the “little hiccups” that might have featured in the past. At one time or another different fleets have been sent around the same mark in opposite directions and once upon a time a TP52 came to finish under spinnaker doing about 20kts only to find 100 X One Designs trying to go the other way off what was their start line! The consolidation and investment process started in the mid-1960s when, on the suggestion of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, Cowes Combined Clubs (CCC) was formed, with nine different yacht clubs working together to bring coordination to the Regatta. CCC is still the organising body but the yacht clubs provide 300 volunteers over the course of the week to make the racing possible,
Above: one of the most challenging places to race with complex tides, intensely tactical
courses and world class competition, there’s
nothing else in the world quite like
Cowes Week. Strong Class Zero and
Class 1 fleets are one of the highlights in this week- long regatta
a stark illustration of the fact that despite the increasing professionalism in our sport the bedrock of it is still weekend warriors enjoying their racing, predominantly put on by volunteers. Cowes Week still runs multiple classes, 17 to 19 one-design dayboat classes every year, as well as the same again in IRC, Performance Cruiser and the recently launched Club Cruiser division. Winning your class at Cowes Week, no matter which it is, remains both challenging and rewarding, and while the Club Cruiser division is of course less competitive than IRC Class 1, it brings new people into racing, some of whom will go on to make their way into other higher performance boats.
A regatta as big as Cowes Week (circa 600 boats and 5000 sailors) is a year-round enterprise however and regatta director Laurence Mead leads a small executive team fully focused on delivering on the event’s objectives. Cowes Week remains a week-long regatta – racing on the final Saturday was dropped a few years ago so it is now seven days of racing. Whilst many regattas have shortened down to a four-day format
PAUL WYETH
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