Five minutes before the start. The sun is shining, 18 knots from the west and the first class stander goes up on the Group B starting boat. A few metres from the starting line, the "Eager", a Nicholson 55, is already lurking, elegant and ready for battle. The tide is still running with the wind. Still.
Meanwhile, there is unease on the launch ship - not because of the imminent start. Nor because of the conditions. They are almost ideal for the Solent. There is unease because of the lack of boats. Too few of the registered boats are on the line shortly before the start.
Then the "Papa" flag goes up. Four minutes to the start. 3 minutes, 2... And then - a sigh of relief. The "Overlord", a 17-metre-long ocean cruiser, reaches the line in time after all. "Luckily," says someone on board the starting ship, "now we have a race."
Then the starting signal is given. The "Eager" sails across the line at full speed. But what is the "Overlord" doing? She seems to be having problems. The genoa kills and the strong current pushing through the Solent from the west pushes the historic yacht further and further away from the starting line.
It takes a few moments, then the crew pulls itself together. The genoa is hauled tight. First sluggishly, then more and more lively, the classic sets off. Upwind, against the current, towards the windward mark. "There you go!" is one of the comments on the starting boat. They take it in their stride. No wonder, because that is exactly the spirit of the event.
Shared organisation of two top dogs
What is taking place here in the middle Solent between Cowes on the Isle of Wight, Southampton and Portsmouth is the 18th edition of the Cowes Classics Regatta. A fixed date for the local classics scene. You can see this in the field of participants: a total of 70 boats on three courses with 250 sailors - many of whom come from the region. The atmosphere is informal.
Traditionally, the Royal London Yacht Club (RLYC) has organised the regatta, and since last year it has done so together with the Royal Thames Yacht Club (RTYC), which has a larger membership. The two long-established clubs share the clubhouse in Cowes, the British sailing capital, and have recently started organising the regatta together.
"The Cowes Classics Regatta is by sailors for sailors. Classic yachts from the region come together here. Occasionally crews from Scotland or other nations also take part," says Peter Taylor. He is one of the founders of the regatta. Until 2017, he was Commodore of the Royal London Yacht Club and at times also Chairman of Cowes Week.
The beginning, 100 years after Olympia
Taylor explains that the regatta once emerged from a revival event for the metre classes. That was in 2008, exactly one hundred years after the Olympic Games in Great Britain. At its peak, up to 200 boats sailed in the Cowes Classics Regatta. That was just before and after the Covid shutdown. After that, the numbers plummeted. The field of participants has also changed, says Taylor. The metre-class yachts used to dominate, but today there are more daysailers.
Unlike the larger British Classic Yacht Club Regatta in July, which mainly attracts purists, the Cowes Classics is more relaxed. Tim Hancock, Sailing Director of the Royal Thames Yacht Club and this year's regatta organiser, emphasises this:
"We want people to come with older boats, enjoy the regatta, learn something and experience the event to the full."
Cowes Classics Regatta lives the "Corinthian Spirit"
The so-called "Corinthian Spirit" is at the centre of the Cowes Classics Regatta - a term that is constantly heard among sailors here. It can best be translated as "amateur sailing": no paid professionals on board, more liberal interpretation of the rules, less strict rules.
There is a reason why this principle is explicitly emphasised in Cowes. In the sailing area off the Isle of Wight, one of the most traditional sailing regions in the world, you regularly meet Admirals Cup veterans and professional skippers both on land and on the water.
The deliberate renunciation of professionalism at the Cowes Classics Regatta is therefore not nostalgia, but an attitude. Of course, this does not change the participants' ambition to race. They give their all on the three courses. Only when in doubt do people tend to turn off and hold back their rights. "For the good of the atmosphere and the preservation of the classic boats," says Hancock.
International classics and many British standardised classes
This includes standardised classes such as kites and darings. The latter are based on the design of the 5.5 metre class, but are not a construction class but a standard class. They are mainly sailed in the UK - just like the XODs.
The classic yachts compete in lane B. "Eager" and "Overlord", for example, sail "round the cans", as they say here, around the racing buoys laid out in the Solent. The field is divided into two groups: over and under 13 metres. In the much larger Group 2, classics such as two Contessa 32s, a Swan 36, several H-boats and a British folk boat will compete together.
Scoring is based on handicap. What counts as a classic is defined in the "Notice of Race". It states: classic keelboats and gaffers with a design that is at least 50 years old, plus all metre classes, classic daysailers and one-designs. The age of the designs is decisive, not that of the boats themselves.
Legendary area, legendary boats
It's not just the designs that are classics - some of the boats themselves also have eventful histories. The "Overlord", for example, the yacht that made it to the starting line just in time, is closely linked to German sailing history. 17 metres long, hull, deck and superstructure made of wood. Abeking & Rasmussen built it around 90 years ago in Bremen-Lemwerder. Back then, she was still known as the "Pelikan".
Before the Second World War, it was located in Kiel and was well known along the Baltic coast. The Luftwaffe used it to train soldiers and officers. Hermann Göring is said to have enjoyed sailing on her. After the end of the war, the "Pelikan" and an estimated 200 other yachts were transferred to British ownership as war reparations. As there were initially no comparable officer training programmes in Great Britain, the boats took on this task - henceforth referred to as "windfalls".
A detailed boat portrait the "Overlord" read here.
With her on track B and no less impressive: the "Eager", formerly "Lutine", a Nicholson 55 that Rutherfords restored in the USA for around one million pounds. Almost everything has been renewed - and yet the unmistakable style of the classic offshore racer has been retained. Only more modern.
The Solent: sailing pleasure and challenge at the same time
Seeing classics like these sailing on the Solent is a spectacle. And the legendary sailing area shows its bright but also challenging side. In the morning, with 16 to 25 knots of wind and current from the same direction, the boats sail smoothly through the waves. But at midday the tide changes - suddenly the wind is against the current. The conditions change within minutes.
A steep, short "chop" builds up, white whitecaps everywhere. "A strong current, lots of wind and this chop - that's typical of the Solent," says Phil Hagen, who is in charge of the race for the classic yachts on lane B. Meanwhile, dark clouds are gathering over the mainland, while the sun continues to shine over the Solent.
More from the Solent:
But as time goes by, the conditions take their toll. More and more crews radio in to give up and return to Cowes. A boat drifts over from the kite track, its foresail torn to shreds. Thick oilskins everywhere, spray in the air. After three races, the day is over. British afternoon tea awaits.
However, things did not go according to plan for the "Overlord" in the end: she just missed the 30-minute time window that opened after the "Eager" crossed the finish line. After three races on the second sailing day, the result was a "DNF" (Did Not Finish). When the regatta organisers informed the crew of this, the response on the radio was brief but calm: "No problem. Thanks for waiting." Quite simply "Corinthian".
Further information on the Cowes Classics Regatta 2026 and all results you will find here.
Fabian Boerger
Editor News & Panorama
