Cowes Week 2025 Preview

ByStuart Johnstone
Two sailboats racing closely on choppy waters with vibrant sails.


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(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- For the first week of August, the Cowes Combined Clubs will be hosting their annual highlight of the summer sailing season on the Solent- the infamous Cowes Race Week off Cowes, Isle of Wight. Yet again, hundreds of boats and thousands of sailors will grace the quaint seaside town with raucous parties and challenging sailing on the capricious waters of the famously fast-flowing Solent Water.

Again, dozens of J/Teams will flock south from their glass tower offices in London and other parts of the United Kingdom and look forward to engaging their passion for sailing for a full seven days on the water! Here is how that all breaks down by division.

IRC 1 Division
Sailing in this fleet will be Ellie Wollmann’s J/111 FREQUENT FLYER and twin J/122s (Nick Southward’s WHISKEY JACK and Derek Shakespeare’s BULLDOG).

IRC 2 Division
A pair of J/112E’s will be racing in this dozen-boat fleet, the Dutch team on JACK RABBIT (Rutger Krijger & Caroline van Beelen) and the British crew on David Franks’s LEON.

IRC 4 Division
This nine-boat fleet is quite literally an all J/Boats division, an internecine battle to say the least. There are two J/99s (Jan Scholtes’s WARP 5 & Charles Balman’s SNAPSHOT), two J/105s (Sara Allan’s TAIKA & Richard Newsom’s JAVELIN), two J/97s (Stew Hawthorn’s JES & Alastair Fry’s JAB CRAB), and three J/92s (Simon & Sally Shilaker’s JAMBO, David & Libby Greenhalgh’s J’RONIMOO, & the trio on NIGHTJAR- Libby Finch, Jack & Joe Banks, & Perry Jeffcoaste).

J/70 Class
As the largest international one-design class at Cowes, the thirty-four J/70s will have very competitive racing off the iconic Royal Yacht Squadron starting line. Several class veterans will be in the mix at the top of the leaderboard, including Ali Hall’s CALYPSO, Cate Muller-Terhune’s American team on CASTING COUCH, Patrick Liardet’s COSMIC, Marshall King & Doug Struth’s DSP, Graham Clapp’s JEEPSTER, David McLeman’s OFFBEAT, William Edward’s SARDONYX, and Jack Davies’ YETI.

J/109 Class
This nine-boat fleet is never lacking for passionate, enthusiastic owners who, year after year, enjoy sailing their J/109s around the cans in the always capricious Solent waters. Amongst those veterans are John Smart’s JUKEBOX, Chris Burleigh’s JYBE TALKIN, Rob Cotterill’s MOJO RISIN, and the Dutch team of Arjen van Leeuwen & Silvy Leijh’s JOULE.

For more Cowes Week sailing information
http://www.cowesweek.co.uk