MATT SHEAHAN

THE BIG REGATTAS HAVE RETURNED, AND THE UK RACING SCENE HAS GOT ITS BUZZ BACK

After more than a year of anguish, frustration and stress, Cowes Week was back. Around 500 boats turned up for this year’s event and while the tally was clearly down on previous years, name me another regatta in the world that has this year drawn more boats across such a broad range of size and types for a week of racing.

True to its tradition, the event enjoyed a full range of conditions from flat calm to full-on and called off. At times there was frustration with the race management as the event struggled to deal with the very conditions that make Cowes Week so challenging, especially when two opposing sea breezes cancelled each other out sandwiching the bulk of the fleet in between. Yet, the overriding sentiment was one of relief that racing had been able to take place at all.

As with so many other events, as the clock counted down to start day there was serious concern as to whether it could even take place. But holding their nerve paid off for the Cowes Week organisers as the full range of boats from Flying 15s to the Fast 40+ fleet that makes this event so special arrived in force.

From my perspective in the commentary RIB it was also great to be back. Among the many stories and sights, there were two in particular that stood out for me.

The first was about Bluebottle, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh’s Dragon built in 1948. Originally presented as a wedding gift to Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip by the Island Sailing Club, the Camper & Nicholson-built boat had been restored recently by David Heritage Racing Yachts and was bound to attract attention for this alone.

But when Graham and Julia Bailey, along with David Heritage, went out and delivered three straight wins against a fleet of new boats, the story got even bigger. By the end of the week they’d wrapped up a class win with a day to spare.

At the other end of the racing spectrum the class that caught my eye was the Cape 31 fleet. This high performance one design class has been the talk of the town, at least in the Solent area since the start of the season. Come Cowes Week a fleet of seven boats raced in their own class and delivered five different winners across six races with all but two boats scoring at least one podium result. Designed by Mark Mills as a modern high performance 30-footer, the Cape 31 class appears to have the credentials to draw interest to an area of keelboat racing that has struggled to grow in recent years.

Of course it wasn’t just Cowes Week that was thankful for being able to take place, the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Rolex Fastnet Race had been running the gauntlet of domestic and international rules as the organisers drew up plan after plan to figure out how they would get the 400 boats that had entered across both the start line in the Solent and across the new finish line in Cherbourg.

But the really impressive fact was the overwhelming support for a race that had thrown plenty of additional logistical challenges at competitors in the build-up, particularly for those coming from France. For many, stopping in the UK before the start was not an option, which meant their Fastnet started with a carefully timed delivery trip across the Channel to Cowes. Along with the longer course, this meant that even some of the bigger boats were looking at potentially an eight day round trip.

Yet, just like Cowes Week, the Fastnet fleet turned up in big numbers for the world’s biggest offshore race and delivered a spectacular spread of entries.

At the top of the scale three 32m Ultim trimarans, the giant brand new and largely untested Clubswan 125 Skorpios, the previous two time monohull line honours winner Rambler 88 along with a fleet of IMOCA 60s and a huge fleet of Class 40s. But this was just the flashy stuff. In between there were amateur crews, first timers, youngsters (the youngest was 12) and the biggest group of them all, the double-handers. All knew they’d be facing some gruelling conditions for the first day or two with a long and punchy beat to the west.

And while there were a number of dropouts before the start as a few teams were Covid pinged and a few others thought better of the conditions, the start was a true spectacle as the fleet punched west.

Whether inshore or offshore, the message from the Solent this summer was clear: it

was good to be back.

‘Inshore or offshore, it was good to be back’