The Princess Royal joins North Sails Cowes Week for historic 200th anniversary
by Cowes Week Ltd 1 Aug 20:15 BST
1-7 August 2026
The Princess Royal visits the Youth Zone at North Sails Cowes Week © Cowes Week / Martin Allen
HRH The Princess Royal joined sailors, organisers and the Cowes community today as North Sails Cowes Week began its historic 200th anniversary celebrations.
Two hundred years after seven yachts gathered off Cowes for the first race in 1826, The Princess Royal returned to the Isle of Wight for the opening weekend of the Bicentenary Regatta, which this year has brought more than 630 boats to the Solent.
North Sails Cowes Week staff were delighted to welcome Her Royal Highness to Regatta House, the nerve centre of the event, where the team works behind the scenes to deliver the racing spectacle each day. The Princess Royal met members of the team and saw first-hand how the regatta is run, from race management and communications to the staff and volunteers who help deliver racing for thousands of competitors across more than 40 classes.
Her Royal Highness also visited the Maritime Heritage Trail, created through a partnership between the Classic Boat Museum and The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust. Linking sailing clubs, museums and heritage venues across Cowes, the trail brings to life the people, boats and stories that have shaped the town and its place at the heart of British and international yachting.
At Commodores House, The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust's Sailing Through Royal History exhibition explores Britannia's connection with Cowes, the Royal Family's love of sailing and their links with legendary Cowes yacht designer Uffa Fox. At its centre is Coweslip, the Flying Fifteen presented to the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1949 as a belated wedding gift from the people of Cowes, now restored and back in the town where she was built and launched.
For The Princess Royal, that history is also personal. As a girl, she spent time aboard HMY Britannia during Cowes Week while her father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, raced on the Solent. She later became a Cowes Week competitor herself, racing aboard UKSA's Farr 65 Albatross II in 2014 and helming the yacht across the finish line ahead of sistership Whirlwind II, aboard which her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, was racing.
oday, The Princess Royal is Admiral of the Royal Yacht Squadron, Patron of the Island Sailing Club and Patron of UKSA, continuing a connection with sailing and Cowes that spans generations.
Bruce Huber, Chairman Elect of Cowes Week Limited, said: "It was a great privilege to welcome The Princess Royal back to Cowes Week in our 200th year. Her Royal Highness has known the regatta from many perspectives - from spending time aboard Britannia as a girl while her father raced, to competing here herself, and through her longstanding involvement with so many of the organisations at the heart of sailing in Cowes. To welcome her behind the scenes at Regatta House and share some of the history we are celebrating this year was a very special way to begin our Bicentenary Regatta."
North Sails Cowes Week continues until Friday 7 August.