Cowes Sailing

Recently there have been three major regattas at Cowes. The first being the famous round the island race.

Round the Island Race

Quote from Google: The race regularly attracts over 1,400 boats and around 15,000 sailors, making it one of the largest yacht races in the world and the fourth largest participation sporting event in the UK after the London Marathon and the Great North and South Runs.”

Unfortunately, I missed this race because of photographing equestrian event elsewhere. But I did take a few photos in last year’s race.

Round the island race, 2021

Cowes Classic’s Week

However, the end of June was the Cowes Classic’s week. With lots of classic yachts racing. Click for more photos of this wonderful regatta.

As usual I successfully missed the start except for one day whilst out on a boat trip.

Quote from www.cowesclassicsweek.org
The event attracts a wide variety of classic yachts ranging from fleets of one-design dayboats, to unique classics from a bygone era. Among the latter this year you will find Sally of Kames, owned by Alan and Jackie Stannah, and Charm of Rhu, owned by RLYC.

Cowes Classic’s Week, 2022

Pro Sailing Tour - Ocean 50

Quote from www.prosailingtour.com:

After two months of high-intensity competition that has taken seven talented Ocean Fifty trimaran skippers from the Mediterranean to France’s Atlantic coast, and then on to Cowes on the Isle of Wight, the outcome of the 2022 Pro Sailing Tour will be decided in what is dubbed the ‘Final Rush’.

The concluding contest will take the fleet of ultra-high-performance foiling multihulls on a challenging 950 nm course from Cowes along the south coast of England, past the Isles of Scilly and across the Celtic Sea to the famed Fastnet Rock, then further up the coast of Ireland and round Great Skelling and the evocatively named Washerwoman Rock. Then it’s past a virtual waypoint some 70km west of Brittany, followed by a mark off Lorient, and back up around Brittany’s rugged coastline to the finish in Roscoff. It’s a suitably testing finale to what has been a closely-fought contest that started in Bonifacio, Corsica, back in May, followed by further events – known as Episodes – in Brest and the Bay of St. Brieuc in France. With the recent race to Cowes – in which defending Pro Sailing Tour champion Sam Goodchild (GBR) on Leyton took line honours – concluding Episode 3, all now depends on the outcome of Episode 4’s Final Rush to Roscoff. “It is going to be intense, the course has it all, rocks, tides, and the wind is not forecast to be very strong, so it will be very strategic,” said Sam Goodchild, skipper of Leyton, just before the start.

Sam Goodchild, skipper of Leyton leading the final leg of the Pro Sailing Tour