North Sails Cowes Week Day 1: The perfect opener
by Cowes Week Ltd 1 Aug 13:54 PDT
1-7 August 2026
The phrase 'a classic Solent day' has been over-used probably for the 199 preceding years but race day one of Cowes Week's 200th anniversary regatta delivered true definitive classic Solent conditions. This made for an absolutely spectacular first day of racing at North Sails Cowes Week.
As the crews of the more than 640 competing boats waited in bright sunshine under a two hour postponement confidence was high that the afternoon would deliver a 20 knot sea breeze and that is exactly what happened.
All of the classes except for the three one design classes who were on the Bramble Plateau were going to the west in the building breeze and the ebb tide running against the wind. The Solent quickly delivered its classic choppy sea state. Sunshine. Big breeze. 5000 sailors and 200 years of history. What's not to like?
Helping celebrate the Cowes Week 200th anniversary the new Vintage Class was away first quickly followed by more than forty J/70s. The juxtaposition of the two classes showed the huge variety in boats that enjoy the regatta.
The J/70s, SB20s and RS21 fleets enjoyed a three-race day. For everyone else it was classic Cowes Week orienteering courses, which took the big boats as far west as Lymington while the day-boats raced up and down the island shore.
Anyone who's raced at Cowes Week will also know that starting with the tide under the fleet inevitably leads to boats crossing the start line early. There was a number of high profile OCS yachts (on course side) as a result, but many fewer than perhaps might be expected. In some classes the percentage was very high! In the Sportsboat class, half of the ten boat fleet was scored OCS. The most notable OCS was probably Ino Veritas in IRC Class Zero with America's Cup skipper Dean Barker calling the shots. That took Ino out of contention for the prestigious Queens Cup presented by the Royal Southampton Yacht Club for which IRC Class Zero and One plus the Cape 31s were combined. The trophy went to Julian Metherell's Cape 31 Bullet. Metherell and his team took the two big trophies in 2025 and they will be a major threat when these classes are combined again on Wednesday and Thursday later in the week.
Phil Warwick, the Principal Race Officer, held his nerve and sent the day boats west into a building breeze and ebb tide. The conditions were perfect. Towards the top end of everybody's comfort zone, maybe, but an exhilarating and memorable day on the water.
In the biggest class of the week, the X One Design Astralita, sailed by John Tremlett, Fraser Graham and Tim Copsey, took the bullet as they have so many times before but on this occasion just nine seconds in front of Phil Lawrence, David King and Nik Froud on Lone Star.
In LMIs IRC Class Three the battle between Adam Gosling's Yes! and David Frank's J/112 Leon was on for another year. On this occasion Yes! took the win with the Dutch boat Jack Rabbit (a sistership to Leon) just behind on corrected time. Leon's week got off to a bad start with an OCS.
In what must come down to the closest finish of the day and in contention for the Close Shave Award ISC Class Six, there was a whole one second corrected time difference between Brett Aarons' Quarter Tonner BLT and Giovani Belgrano's Laurent Giles designed classic Whooper. Considering these two boats are about 60 years apart in design and technology the IRC Rule delivered a brilliant close race between them.
The day's racing ended with literally hundreds of boats coming down Cowes Green under spinnaker in sparkling conditions. Classic Cowes at its very best.
For Becci and Roger Wickens the last run down the Green delivered a win in the Sunbeam Class, just six seconds ahead of Robert Coltart's Peggy. "Living hell!" is how Roger described the last run (with a smile), the Sunbeams criss-crossing other classes as they battled against the tide down to the famous RYS finish line.
After some years of declining entries in the wake of Covid, Cowes Week is back to its very best. Hundreds of boats starting all over the Solent, and with support of great group of sponsors, including new title sponsor North Sails, the event is in great shape after 200 years of annual racing. It's hard to imagine that those two centuries ago the boats racing around to create the first Cowes Week could have ever expected North Sails Cowes Week to be the huge international success that it is. Yet history has proven the event's resilience and another six race days lie ahead for the competitors to enjoy.
Full results can be found at www.cowesweek.co.uk