COWES WEEK

Cowes Week is a week of yacht racing at the turn of July and August on the Solent, off the town of Cowes on the Isle of Wight: from the Saturday to the Friday, some six hundred boats in more than thirty classes, from little wooden one-designs of a century ago to the latest ocean racers, with more than thirty starts a day. It has been sailed since 1826, and it ends, on the Friday night, with fireworks over the water.

Each start is fired by one of a line of little brass guns on the sea wall before the Royal Yacht Squadron. They came from the yacht Royal Adelaide, and were given to the Squadron by Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales.

The Squadron

On 1 June 1815, forty-two gentlemen interested in sailing at sea met at the Thatched House Tavern in St James’s and founded the Yacht Club. It became the Royal Yacht Club under George IV and, in 1833, the Royal Yacht Squadron; since 1829 its members have flown the white ensign. Its house is the Castle at Cowes, which Henry VIII built to keep out the French, and its members are elected by secret ballot.

On 10 August 1826 the Club brought racing for cups to the Cowes regatta: seven cutters raced for a gold cup worth a hundred pounds, with a ball at the hotel in East Cowes and fireworks from the promenade. George IV gave a King’s Cup the next year.

In 1851 the Squadron put up a cup of a hundred pounds for a race round the island, and the schooner America, from New York, won it. Queen Victoria is said to have asked who was second, and been told, “Ah, Your Majesty, there is no second.” The cup went to America and has been called the America’s Cup ever since. The regatta has been stopped only by the two wars and the pandemic.

The Week

The week runs from the first Saturday after the last Tuesday in July to the following Friday. The fleet is divided into the White Group, the dayboats, and the Black Group, the larger boats with cabins, and each class sails one long race a day round the marks of the Solent, starting off the Squadron’s line every ten minutes or so from the morning.

The old one-design classes still race: Dragons, Flying Fifteens, Redwings, Sea View Mermaids, Solent Sunbeams, Swallows, Victories and X One Designs. Ashore there is music in the pubs on the High Street, concerts at Northwood House, prize-giving on the Friday night and the Squadron’s ball.

In 2026, its bicentenary, from 1 to 7 August, the Princess Royal, the Squadron’s Admiral, fired the first gun; 642 boats raced in thirty-six classes, Lone Star won overall, and the fireworks came back on the Friday after six years without them.

What to Know

It runs from a Saturday to a Friday at the end of July or the start of August: in 2027, from 31 July to 6 August.

Watching from the shore is free, and spectator boats go out among the fleet. To race, one needs a place on a boat.

No dress code is given. On the water, sailing clothes; ashore, a blazer, and for the Squadron’s ball, black tie.

Red Funnel’s Red Jet carries foot passengers from Southampton to West Cowes in under half an hour, and its car ferry runs to East Cowes; South Western Railway sells tickets for train and ferry together. Rooms in Cowes are few and dear that week, and are taken early.

The mistake is to bring a car. Parking in Cowes is very limited and must be booked, and foot passengers need no booking at all.

The Court

Cowes Week is not the Court’s own. Places aboard boats in the racing, rooms in the town and tickets for the evenings are sought on a member’s behalf, and the Court arranges the whole of it: getting there, where to stay on the island, and the table afterward. The Court’s own crewing, out of Oyster Bay, is in July.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.