(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- Since 1826 Cowes Week has played a key
part in the British sporting summer calendar and is one of the UK’s
longest running and most successful sporting events. It now stages up to
40 daily races for around 1,000 boats and is the largest sailing
regatta of its kind in the world. Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week,
as the event is now known, is a fusion of many exciting elements, with
its great mix of competitive sailing and social activities. The 8,500
competitors range from Olympic and world class professionals to weekend
sailors. In excess of 100,000 spectators come to watch the sailing,
enjoy the parties and live entertainment, and to experience the unique
atmosphere. It is genuinely a one-of-a-kind event. In attendance are throngs of J sailors sailing on eighty-six J's ranging from J/80s to J/133s looking forward to the challenging racing on the capricious Solent, renowned for its wild currents and eddies, and engaging in the navigational puzzles every day of "what's the course and where's the bloody mark"!? Many a Cowes Week has been blown either by misguiding the rounding of a mark in 5 knots adverse current or simply missing one altogether!
Leading the charge as THE large one-design keelboat fleet at Cowes are the J/109s. At twenty-seven boats strong, you'll see many class leaders trying to avoid "the big mistake" and stay in the hunt for five straight days-- not an easy task when one considers that the crew often find the Guinness Beer tent and seemingly disappear into the ether (perhaps their brains do). Nevertheless, rest assured that J-DREAM, chartered by Peter Nicholson, will be in the limelight, as will be ME JULIE (Dominique Monkhouse), OUTRAJEOUS (Richard and Melanie Griffith), VELVET ELVIS (Richard and Helen Wright) and YEOMAN (the team from Malta is chartering with skipper Jon Calascione and perhaps Jon and Christian Ripard aboard?).
As they usually do, the J/80s all rally to celebrate the pinnacle of summer sailing and festivities by assembling a great fleet of sailors on the infamous Royal Yacht Squadron line. Amongst the twenty-two boats vying for honors will be two TOE IN THE WATER boats- BIG TOE (Sam Thompson) and LITTLE TOE (Dave Chisolm). In addition to them are past J/80 UK Champions like boats.com (Ian Atkins), SPITFIRE from the Royal Air Force Sailing Squadron (Tony Hanlon) and AQUA J (Bob Thompson).
For the first time, it looks like there will be a one-design sub-section of J/97s- six of them- all racing in IRC class. Included amongst this exciting new fleet are McFLY (Tony Mack- previous winner of Queens Cup at CW, Nab Tower race, Tobago and BVI regattas), JIKA JIKA (Mike & Jamie Holmes), FEVER (Grant Gordon), JACKAROO (Jim and Steve Dick), JET (James Owen) and INJENIOUS (Dr Gillian Ross- 2nd fastest J/97 in its first outing- the Round Island Race!).
IRC Class along will have 32 J's sailing in a fleet of 207 boats, or about 15% of the fleet. Sure to be a factor will be the two J/111s, SHMOKING JOE (Duncan McDonald and Phil Thomas- recent IRC Class winners in the Round Island Race) and the newly launched J-XCENTRIC (John van der Starre & Robin Verhoef who will also be sailing the Fastnet Race Double-handed!). Then, the winning J/122 JINJA (Ian Matthews) will keep everyone honest and perhaps win a race or two and take a podium finish! Two other well-sailed J/133s- JINGS (David Ballantyne) and JIVARO (Yves Grosjean) have proven their capabilities to win races both around-the-cans and offshore. This group is a tough one to put down a "betting line" on since just about everyone has won something in the recent past! For more Cowes Race Week sailing information
