Panerai British Classic Week combines forces with HERO

By Kate MacDougall on 24 Jun 201117-23 July 2011

Sixty classic yachts and sixty classic cars will come together in Cowes on the Isle of Wight in July during Panerai British Classic Week when Officine Panerai, the British Classic Yacht Club and The Historic Endurance Rallying Organisation (HERO) will host an event for classic yacht and car enthusiasts.

The week-long sailing regatta, (16th-23rd July), whose participants include some of the world’s finest vintage and classic yachts will also be the venue of this year’s HERO Summer Classic Reliability Trial & Tour taking place on Thursday 21st July.

For the second year the regatta forms part of the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge Series, the international regatta circuit which includes some of the world’s leading classic yacht regattas, such as the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta and the Régates Royales in Cannes. Between April and September over five-thousand people, among them yacht owners, professional sailors and sailing enthusiasts will come together at the ten events in the series’ calendar.

During Panerai British Classic Week two members of the Naval Service will participate in the HERO Summer Classic and Reliability Trial and Tour and the sailing events in support of members of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines serving on operations worldwide and will help raise money for the Royal Navy & Royal Marines charity, who support serving and former naval personnel to make their lives that much better.

They will drive a Land Rover in the event and on the regatta’s final day of sailing they will sail on-board one of the competing yachts. In addition to the event’s organisers the participants in both events will be invited to make donations to the charity.

The reliability trial will begin at 9.30am on July 21st with a car leaving Cowes Yacht Haven every minute until 10.30am. Each car will take part in a manoeuvrability test before continuing reliability trial around the Isle of Wight with cars returning to the yacht haven throughout the day. The classic cars, including more than a dozen teams from all over Europe will leave the Island that evening to continue the trial, which will conclude on Saturday 23rd July with a black-tie presentation awards dinner in the Goodwood area.

Members of the public are invited to the Panerai event village in Cowes Yacht Haven to observe this rare spectacle and soak up the event’s atmosphere. Among the sixty cars competing is a DB6 Aston Martin owned by Sir Paul McCartney and a 1937 Jaguar SS100. Harbour-side the public will be able to see the iconic yacht Gipsy Moth IV on which Sir Francis Chichester sailed single-handed around the world in 1966-7 as well as Mikado, the 42ft Fife & Sons yacht built in 1904. People wishing to stay to see the yachts return to the harbour at the end of the day will be able, to enjoy live musical entertainment and food and drink from local artisan producers in the Panerai event village open between 3pm-8pm throughout the regatta and until 11pm Wednesday- Friday.

Patrick Burke and Tomas de Vargas Machuca, Directors of HERO, comment: “HERO is delighted to be invited to host the Summer Classic Reliability Trial and Tour at the Panerai British Classic Week. It is the first time that a classic car and classic yacht event have come together to create a hugely exciting and visual event. HERO is going from strength to strength and collaborations like this really show what a positive direction the organisation is moving. HERO's aim is to help focus up and coming young talent to show that endurance rallying is an extremely thrilling sport.”