EVEN THOUGH Cowes Week was again unable to unveil a main sponsor, this year’s regatta proved a huge success.
Now plans are already underway for next year’s Cowes Week, a event that began 184 years ago, and will be held in 2011 from August 6 to 13.
Cowes Week 2010 proved a thrilling event with exciting racing for the 896 entries and around 8,000 sailors who were competing.
The largest class racing at the regatta was the XOD fleet with 88 boats battling for honours. That made victory all the sweeter for the winning boat, Catherine, who not only won her class but also took the glory as the overall winner of the White Group.
The youngest skipper to race at Cowes Week this year was 14-year-old Fred Warren-Smith who enjoyed a cracking Cowes Week winning the Squib class in Aquabat and also taking the 2010 Young Skippers Trophy.
The 1851 Cup saw some exciting match racing between the British America’s Cup sailing team and current America’s Cup holders BMW Oracle Racing. The competition included a race clockwise around the Island following the original historic course of the America’s Cup in 1851. While Ben Ainslie and his crew on TeamOrigin lost out on the race around the Island, the team came up trumps overall to win the Royal Thames Yacht Club’s Trafalgar Cup.
Having narrowly missed out on the overall Black Group Trophy in 2009, Neville Upton racing in the Sunsail fleet with The Listening Company was back to better this performance with an overall victory; this goal was successfully achieved with a Sunsail class win topped by the winning of the Overall Black Group Trophy.
The newest class the Longtze class which competed in Cowes Week as part of its European circuit. The class included a number of European boats to the world’s best-known sailing regatta and it is hotly tipped to be a growing addition to Cowes Week in the next few years.
Cowes Week was delighted to play host to a number of championship events this year, with the Tacktick Suunto Sigma 33 Class championship,won by Whippa Snappa, and the J/92 national championship, won by Just in Time.
The week set off to an exhilarating start with the Extreme 40s racing in the second leg of the Extreme Sailing Series. Paul Campbell-James, the youngest skipper in the Series, on The Wave, Muscat secured his first win in the event.
A fleet of six Simon Rogers-designed Artemis 20 keelboats, helmed by qualified UKSA skippers and crewed by novice sailors from a mixed background of disability and disadvantage competed for the Artemis Even Keel Challenge Trophy. In first place was Craig Rose, from the Island, who won alongside Rob Greenhalgh, offshore yachtsman and veteran of the Volvo Ocean Race and the Extreme Sailing Series.
The fourth Artemis Challenge was a battle for £10,000 awarded to the winning skipper to donate to their chosen charity. The event was held as a pro/celeb race with Zara Phillips, Amy Williams, Martin Bayfield, and the Phelps twins all taking part.
The winning skipper, Mike Golding, and his team donated the prize money to the RNLI; the official charity of Cowes Week.
The Ladies Day Trophy was awarded to Louise Morton, an accomplished local sailor who has spent the past five years reviving the Quarter Ton class and is a great advocate for Cowes, Cowes Week and women’s sailing.
There was a breathtaking display from The Royal Artillery Parachute Display Team, the Black Knights, who jumped from a helicopter hovering over the Solent and glided down in a stunning formation proudly flying the Union Jack before dropping into the water just off Cowes Parade.
The poor weather near the end of the regatta forced the cancellation of the Red Arrows display but did not stop the spectacular fireworks display bringing Cowes week to a glittering finale.
(With assistance from cowesweek.co.uk and cowes online)
