Cowes Week at 200: Still one of the best weeks in sailing

Sitting on the ferry home from the bicentenary Cowes Week, I can honestly say it was one of the most enjoyable weeks of sailing I’ve had in a very long time.

The regatta was a genuine celebration of our sport in all its forms – from the spectacular 56-footers to the relentlessly competitive Flying Fifteens. That variety has always been one of Cowes Week’s greatest strengths. You can have professional sailors, family crews, Olympic medallists and enthusiastic amateurs all competing on the same stretch of water. Few events bring the sport together quite like it.

Cowes itself was noticeably busier, with sailors travelling from across Europe to celebrate 200 years of racing at one of the world’s great sailing venues. The weather played its part, the racing delivered, and the town felt properly alive again.

In the build-up, the organisers promised evening entertainment and lively nights reminiscent of the good old days – and they delivered. To say there were some long queues outside the coffee shops each morning, populated by blurry eyes and dusty heads, would be an understatement. For the first week of August, Cowes was once again the party capital of the South Coast.

The second half of the regatta was dominated by a building southwesterly sea breeze, but the opening days gave us some refreshing easterlies and the chance to race beyond the forts towards Ryde and Portsmouth. That variety is part of the enduring magic of Cowes Week. By the final race, you feel as though you’ve covered every inch of the Solent.

One of the most noticeable – and encouraging – features of the week was the significant increase in female sailors across the classes. Looking around the boats, you could see the step change that has taken place over the past 20 years continuing at pace. During Women’s Day, 20 per cent of the helms were female. That is real progress, and long may it continue.

Maybe it’s simply because I’m getting a little older, but there was also a distinctly younger atmosphere across the regatta. There were more young sailors on the water, more energy around the town and a sense that Cowes Week is evolving without losing the character that has sustained it for two centuries.

Times are changing – and, in this case, very much for the better.

In terms of the results, IRC 0 became something of a testing ground for the 50-footers building towards the 2027 Admiral’s Cup.

Karl Kwok’s Hong Kong entry Beau Geste showed that, right now, they are a step ahead of the rest of the fleet in their preparation. They beat Ino Veritas and collected two of the week’s major prizes – the Britannia Cup and the New York Yacht Club Challenge Cup.

It was quite a week for Gavin Brady and the team, establishing them as one of the firm favourites among the big boats heading into next July’s Solent showdown.

The same could be said of IRC 1, won by the New Zealand entry Callisto as they continue their own Admiral’s Cup preparations. They spent the week locked in a terrific battle with Simon Patterson’s Standfast, with the overall class victory eventually coming down to the final race. Callisto won it and, with it, the class.

It was another reminder of the effect the Admiral’s Cup is already having. These fleets are becoming more competitive, the programmes more focused and the racing more intense as teams begin positioning themselves for 2027.

The Cape 31s, one of the strongest classes in British sailing over the past five years, held their own four-day mini-series comprising nine races. That was won by Kumbu, helmed by Christian Hamilton, while his partner Guy Gillon was driving the impressive Kumbu 56 in IRC 0. The Cape 31 result further strengthened Kumbu’s grip on this season’s UK championship.

The Dragon class produced an impressive turnout of 25 boats, with victory going to the Royal Yacht Bluebottle, helmed by Graham Bailey. The fleet now rolls directly into the Edinburgh Cup, followed by the Marblehead Trophy. Cowes Week was effectively the beginning of a month-long celebration of Dragon racing in the UK.

There are far too many individual stories to cover them all, but even a quick glance through the results reveals some of Britain’s finest sailors at the front of almost every fleet. It shows that Cowes Week still has the pull to attract the very best in the business.

It was also good to see GB1 back in town, displaying the Louis Vuitton Cup they won in 2024 and generating some valuable local support. Ben, Hannah and Dylan were out inspiring the next generation at the team’s various activation areas along the Parade.

It was particularly nice to see Ben back in a boat for the first time in two years. He went sailing with the Athena Pathway sailors, sharing some of the knowledge and experience accumulated over an extraordinary career.

For me, after a week of complicated manoeuvres in the pit aboard the TP52 Gladiator, the trickiest manoeuvre of all was probably hosting The Foil’s live podcast inside the Musto beer tent, surrounded by tipsy sailors and accompanied by a healthy amount of heckling.

Having Simon Fry as one of our guests made it fascinating. He spoke very honestly about the direction in which the sport is heading, and it would be fair to say that his comments have stirred up plenty of debate. I always knew Stir Fry would be a cracking guest.

By the end of the evening, plenty of people were buying him beers in the Bar as a reward for his forthright opinions on foiling and where it sits within the much broader world of wind-powered fun.

Let’s hope this Cowes Week wasn’t simply a flash in the pan for the 200th anniversary. It genuinely felt like the good old days again.

Hopefully, it has reignited something among the sailors,  boat owners and families who make the event what it is—and persuaded plenty of them to return for number 201 in 2027.