Cowes Week Lessons
With the regatta on the back-foot and desperate, now is the time for change.
On paper, Cowes week should be a slam dunk attracting the H.E.N.R.Y (High Earners, Not Rich Yet) brigade in their droves for seven days of sea, salt, shenanigans and sambucas, but as everyone knows, in recent years it has dropped off a cliff faster than a tariff implementation on the S&P. Well-meaning people are paddling like swans behind the scenes, emitting an air of calm whilst the undercurrent threatens to suck the regatta under, perhaps never to return. If I’ve heard one claim of financial mis-management and myopic strategy in recent years, I’ve heard a dozen. It’s not pretty what’s being said and to all intents and purposes, Cowes Week, or at least the Cowes Week that the rose-tinted spectacled amongst us remember, is as dead as a lost Dodo.
There is, however, hope but it will take arguably a clear-out of those charged with the current running, some cold hard truths to be acknowledged and a complete re-focus on what’s important, in order to fit the rest of the commercial ambitions around it.
What was abundantly clear from the way the Royal Thames Yacht Club ran its 250th Anniversary Regatta over the last five days, is that there is a demand there from sailors to come to events that are focussed on them. Making the sailors feel welcomed and listened to, is paramount. But so too the little touches, that Cowes Week used to do so well, go such a long way to engendering warmth to an event.
Whenever you go to a regatta and you feel appreciated, you change your attitude completely. Communication is the number one priority. Speaking to competitors on the level by Race Officers that are efficient and all over the detail, is so important and at the 250th, the Thames had the finest set of individuals running the event that I have ever seen in world sailing. I look at the likes of Tim Hancock, Stuart Childerley, Steve Cole, Phil Hagen, James Ripley and Phil Warwick and I just see ‘world-class’ written all over, most of whom are, could and should be running or involved in the running of global regattas, the America’s Cup even. That’s the level. That’s where Cowes Week needs to aspire. Get the sailing right and the rest follows.
What the 250th regatta proved on the water was that you could run everything from Admiral’s Cup and Classic monsters alongside Seaview Mermaids, Sonars and RS21’s and deliver a massive regatta in a small area of the Central Solent that ran like clockwork.
In total they delivered 108 individual races over the five days, and remember the first two days only had three classes racing. That’s incredible and everyone, bar none, came ashore thoroughly exhausted, elated and bang up for the socials.
But here’s the thing. Cowes Week needs to acknowledge the shift in behaviour amongst not only the H.E.N.R.Y brigade, but also the rest of the Corinthians and the uber-professional outfits that are willing to do regattas.
Cowes Week shifted to seven days a few years ago and dropped the final weekend. But still, getting time off work, committing to seven days straight and doing sailing over a million other things is a huge stretch that most just cannot do in this day and age.
I would argue, and this is an argument mooted around town, that the regatta needs to go to 8 days over the two weekends, split into regattas of four days for one set of competitors, and four days for the others with a transitional day being Wednesday where there is no racing and Cowes town can have a ball.
Can you imagine the parties on Tuesday evening? And can you imagine what ‘Super-Wednesday’ could be? Cowes as a town would massively benefit from the stores to the restaurants, to the bars and pubs to the yacht clubs. It would be sensational, and let’s allow the sailing world to think up water-based entertainment for the crowds to enjoy on that Wednesday and showcase Cowes for what it is - the home of world sailing. Demo sailing up the Green? Try-Sailing initiatives. Tall Ships. Foilers. Classics. Superyachts. You name it. You’d create a focal point that would be undeniable and a social scene that the paying punters would love. The sky is the limit - in actual fact, the sky could be filled with aerial demonstrations - and how about fireworks or a drone display on the Wednesday evening? Let the creative juices flow here on a blank canvas. It would be epic.
For the sailors, I would argue that the Cowes Yacht Haven and Shepards Wharf need to be the absolute beating heart of the regatta. They always used to be, and they really should be, but somehow everything got muddled with the clubs and classes and nobody really knows right now where to go.
Put the entire race management down in the Events Centre and make it a place where sailors want to go. Where they need to go. Where the action is. Where the food is. Where the beers and karate yachting is afterwards. Yesterday afternoon after sailing this is what the Royal Thames did, and the atmosphere was electric. It was like 1993 all over again but with a contemporary vibe and enough libations to sink a battle ship. The sailors loved it.
I have no problems though with some of the traditional elements of Cowes Week. I think the Squadron finishing line is an asset. The cannons on the Castle wall, a USP that is totally unique (other than the Middle Sea Race) to Cowes. I would have no problems with three races a day with two being windward/leeward double-lapper blasts and then a stipulation that all third races are round-the-cans and finish on the Squadron line - preferably with a run down the Green for the sheer PR and comedy value. Like it or lump it. It’s Cowes not Lake Garda. It is, at times, brutally unfair but that’s Cowes Week. Come and embrace the unique madness of it.
On two successive days this weekend, IRC Zero, 1 & 2 finished on a line just off the mouth of Cowes Harbour. Yes the Red Funnel ferry wasn’t happy with the balls-out pros crossing their bow, but Red Funnel and Cowes Harbour authorities can suck that one up. The spectacle was unbelievable. Jolt 3 thundered down the Medina under main and genoa leading the Admiral’s Cup fleet home, screeching its sheets and doing about 15 knots. Absolutely wonderful to see in the sunshine, big breeze and waves on a wind-against-tide reach. On the Parade, everyone, literally everyone, stopped to watch. That is Cowes writ large. It’s everything and I just could not help but think that Cowes Week has it all in its grasp if wise heads prevail.
Will it happen? Not with the current incumbents who have a huge eye on next year’s (2026) bicentennial anniversary. This year’s 199th will no doubt be a blancmange again and it really is time to wake up, see what good looks like and get the right people involved. A call to the Royal Thames Yacht Club might just be the sharpest move that anyone can do.
It is, arguably, Cowes Week’s only hope.