Cowes Week - Have you entered yet?

Girls on Film - Lendy Cowes Week 2018 © Paul Wyeth / CWL

Standard Entry still Open!

With standard entry to Cowes Week open for another three weeks (closes Friday August 2nd) there is still time to enter the UK's biggest keelboat regatta (Saturday 10th to Saturday 17th August 2019). Here are some reasons that you shouldn't miss out this year!

SailGP - if you can't make the whole week why not join us for the first weekend?

This is going to be a very special Cowes Week as we integrate SailGP, a revolutionary new sailing championship featuring six national teams competing on foiling 50 foot catamarans, as a feature event of the first weekend. We have updated the sailing instructions so that we can get Cowes Week racing completed in all reasonably normal wind scenarios (bearing in mind that well known saying "it's never normally like this here"!). Start times are broadly the same as last year but there will be a new start and finish line option, one in the eastern and one in the western Solent so that in the case of a late sea breeze we can still get races away if that timing overlaps with SailGP. Cowes Week races should finish by 15:00 so that boats get a chance to return to Cowes and watch what will be an awesome spectacle.

Prize Giving on Friday August 16th

The other major change this year is that the Cowes Week overall prize giving for all classes will be on Friday night starting at 19:30 at Shepards Marina. Previously we finished Black Group on Friday and White Group on Saturday but going forward the points series for all classes will end on the Friday.

Saturday 17th August - enter for the last day for £44 regardless of boat size!

Racing continues on Saturday 17th of August for trophies presented by Cowes Town Regatta and we will have another prize-giving that evening (at Cowes Corinthian YC) for what is in effect a one-day regatta to end Cowes Week. We hope to develop this into a fun, end of regatta extra day when perhaps crew are given a chance to helm and drivers go on the foredeck?!

The new Solent Team Trophy

We are really excited about our new Solent Team Trophy. This is open to teams of three boats, representing either yacht clubs or national flags where three boats are from the same country. The rules have been updated so that you now must have one boat from both Black Group and White Group, with the third from either. Get your team together now!

Cowes Week Ltd Cocktail Party at the Royal Yacht Squadron

On Sunday 11th August, CWL is hosting a cocktail party at the Royal Yacht Squadron. Tickets are available to competitors for £32. Contact the regatta office to confirm your ticket.

Cowes Week App

Don't forget to download the Cowes Week app which will be available in early August. Competitors will receive an access code. The App will enable us to keep you fully in touch with everything that is happening, onshore as well as on the water.

Regatta Ethos

It is important to CWL that we put on a great week for you, delivering world-class regatta racing. It is a regatta not a world championship however, and it should test different skills from those that you might use on a windward-leeward course. Our philosophy is that if there is enough wind to get boats moving then they should be out racing, dealing with whatever conditions are thrown at them!

It's vital too that it is fun, so the social side of the regatta is important, as is a spirit of camaraderie on the water. The words of the legendary Paul Elvstrom sum it up. "If in winning the race you have lost the respect of your competitors you have won nothing at all".

Sailing Instructions

The Sailing Instructions have now been published and can be found here [PDF]. Any questions please contact the regatta office on 01983 295744. For racing-related questions use the 'Ask Laurence' Forum on our website or email