Cowes Week 2025 Update

(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- For the first week of August, the Cowes Combined Clubs are hosting their annual highlight of the summer sailing season on the Solent- the famous 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 are sailing for a full seven days on the water! Here is how that all breaks down by division.

Day 1: Light winds, building breeze, and spectacular racing
The bigger boats were moved from the Squadron Line to a Committee Boat start off Beaulieu, with the remaining committee boat fleets starting just off Thorness. All classes were initially postponed for two hours, moving to a single AP as the breeze slowly made its way up the Solent.

The wind that took its time to build, and kept everyone on their toes as they tried to get the first starts from the Squadron line. At 1300, the breeze seemed to be building as forecast, and at 1324, a call was made to lower the AP.

First off was the 36-strong J/70 Class. The following classes became a bit bunched as the breeze went more east and proved rather fickle for a while.

Meanwhile, in the western Solent, the larger boats on the committee boat started delaying their first starts until 1425 and were rewarded with a consistent breeze, giving fabulous racing for all the fleets.

As racing got underway with the J/70s, several boats left it a bit late to get the right side of the line after the lengthy postponement, resulting in a general recall. The class eventually got away at 1340, with individual recalls which saw six boats scoring OCS.

As the fleet tacked up the shore, it gave spectators on the shore a fantastic view. Bruce Huber’s ENDEAVOUR emerged as the early leader, while SARDONYX suffered the misfortune of running aground in front of the crowds. The J/70’s course took them round Gurnard, then across to Contessa 32, west to Jane, then Hill Head before finishing at East Knoll. CASTIGN COUCH took the first race win, followed by ENDEAVOUR, LADY KHUMBU, and JELVIS fourth.

Faye Chatterton on LADY KHUMBU described the start: “A bit wacky and wonderful as it always is, tide against not a lot of wind… we managed to sneak around the fleet to finish third in the first race from pretty deep off the line. It took a lot of patience.”

The class managed to fit in two further races, both won by JELVIS, but a win and two seconds saw CASTING COUCH, leading the class at the end of the day, JELVIS second, and CALYPSO third.

Day 2: Tight racing, big waves, and family fun
First to set off for the day were the J/70s at 1030. As with most of the day’s Squadron starts, the fleet fought it out for the pin end, with the breeze steadier and stronger than inshore.

Day 3: Weekend warriors and inspiring figures
A few keen souls also made the most of the gusty, stormy conditions. A couple of the Cape 31s went out for a morning practice, with a few blown-out spinnakers the reward for their efforts, just in case anyone was doubting the race committee’s decision.

Today was Charity Day. Sailing is such a brilliant vehicle for so much charity work, and there are various organisations that use the sport and Cowes Week as a great way to help all kinds of disabled or disadvantaged groups.

The official Cowes Week charities this year are the RNLI and Autism on the Water, which provides free-of-charge sailing for autistic people and their families.

Day 4: Series winners and racing women
The classes starting from the Squadron line were all off on time, bunching to start from the pin end before the wet, windy beat to the first mark. Today, these include a few of the cruiser classes and smaller IRC boats, as well as the small keelboat and one-design classes with just a few individual recalls in some of the keener fleets.

As the start sequence progressed, the wind built to around 19 knots. Later in the day, spectators enjoyed the entertainment of these fleets finishing close inshore on the Squadron line.

Committee Vessel 1 started the larger IRC classes to the east, where they saw around 10-14 knots and shifty conditions. The J/70s were on Committee Vessel starts all day for the three races, which completed series racing for both classes.

Winner of the J/70 Mini Series was Martin Dent’s JELVIS, followed by Cate Muller-Terhune’s CASTING COUCH. These two were neck and neck until today, but it was JELVIS who pulled ahead, counting two wins and a second for the day.

Women’s Day
Women’s Day aims to highlight the achievements of female sailors across the fleets competing in Cowes, and also encourage an extra effort with female participation. While some have been sailing all week, for others it was an excuse to sail with an all-female crew or female helm for the day.

Racing off the Committee Vessel 4 startline, IRC4 had three female helms who were battling it out around the course. Sarah Allen was just one of the female skippers in this class, also with an all-female crew on the J/105 TAIKA. “We had slightly lighter winds, so there were lots of holes and a huge amount of shifts – the shifts were like 30 degrees, so there were lots of tactical tacking and lots of wins and losses on that. A tactically interesting race, a long day on the water, we enjoyed it tremendously – champagne sailing and sunshine.”

“We’re sailing with a great bunch of girls on the boat who are all really good sailors. This is our first season, so we’re still learning a lot. We’ve got Susan Glenny, who is an excellent offshore sailor and skipper, but we also had a young Tara Scully who’s done Nacras and things, but it’s her first time on the mainsheet. We had a great little battle with the J/92 J’RONIMO with Libby Greenhalgh helming, and another really good all-female crew was Libby Finch’s J/92 NIGHTJAR, so it was neck-and-neck in our group.”

“It’s nice to see so much support for women’s sailing, and when we’re all working and being mums, it’s really nice to have a day out on the water and being together and learning.”

Day 5: Another Glamma Day
The day started with light variable winds, which meant all classes were postponed initially for two hours, with the White Group boats starting on the Squadron line postponed for three hours. Black Group got off at 1300, but White Group had a further lengthy wait for the breeze.

In IRC 2, there was a really good battle on the water between David Franks’ J/112E LEON, Rutger Krijger & Caroline van Beelen’s J/112E JACK RABBIT, and Adam Gosling’s YES! Today, these three were battling around the course as they approached the first windward mark. YES managed to get ahead as LEON and JACK RABBIT jostled for position around the mark, LEON snuck the inner berth, forcing JACK RABBIT to give them room. But, on the hoist, it was JACK RABBIT that got ahead. The three later crossed the line in short succession, YES first with JACK RABBIT hot on her heels, LEON just slightly further behind. LEON led the class by some margin with a clean sheet of firsts going into the day, but on corrected time, it was JACK RABBIT that took the day’s win, YES second, and LEON third.

Sailing in the J/70 fleet for their mini-series has been 21-year-old Arthur Farley, who’s campaigning for the Olympics in the ILCA class. Unfortunately, a collision occurred on starboard tack his racing short. “We were almost joint third, we were looking to stay on the podium, and we’ve obviously got our redress, but think we ended up fifth or something. I’ve only just started racing J/70s, predominantly learning this stuff. Cowes Week is a really enjoyable one to do and usually it doesn’t clash for us, so I’ve done five so far!”

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