Lining up for Cowes Week

900 boats and a wealth of new features this year

With seven days to go to the start of Skandia Cowes Week on Saturday 2 August,
the entries stand at 897 and more are coming in every day, many via the Internet.

There are 36 classes racing at Skandia Cowes Week this year with IRM (first three days only) or 37 classes if you include Sunsail 36 and 37 as separate classes; they are
having a joint start but separate results. The new classes for 2003 are the Laser SB3
and 1720 Sportsboat.

When all the boats are out racing, there are as many as 8,000 sailors a day on the
water at Skandia Cowes Week. In the region of 200,000 sailing and non-sailing public experience the Week and the Friday night (8 Aug) Fireworks Display is second only, in terms of the numbers watching it, to the Edinburgh Hogmanay Display.

- Other features of the week will be Formula 1 Grand Prix racing driver David Coulthard who will be sailing at Skandia Cowes Week on Friday 8 August. Coulthard will be racing on board the newly launched Farr 65, Hugo Boss, skippered by Alex Thompson of Formula 1 Sailing.

- Also new is a special Lymington-Cowes catamaran service. This is being run for the first time by Skandia Cowes Week sponsor Wightlink throughout the 2003 Regatta. Aimed at both crews and spectators, the half-hour crossing on Wightlink’s new FastCat craft will run from 2-8 August to Thetis Wharf in West Cowes town, easy walking distance into the centre.

Six crossings will operate daily from Lymington, starting at 0730, and six will depart from Cowes with the last crossing back to the mainland scheduled at 1900. The return portion of the ticket can also be used on the Yarmouth/Lymington route for passengers who want to stay on for the evening. Return fares are priced at £12 for adults and £6 for children aged 5-15.

- Seb Clover, the 16-year old schoolboy who lives on the Isle of Wight and raced his
father Ian across the Atlantic last year in a Contessa 32 when he was still only 15,
will be at this year’s Skandia Cowes Week.

Clover will present the Skandia Young Skipper’s Trophy at the overall prizegiving in Cowes Yacht Haven on Saturday 9 August. His next sailing ambition is to be the youngest-ever single-handed sailor to round Cape Horn. This he again plans to do sailing in company with his father Ian, and his current plans are to do it this Christmas …but first he needs a corporate sponsor to sign him up.

- The Solent Sunbeams are celebrating their 80th Anniversary this year. A design by Alfred Westmacott, the Solent Sunbeams are beautiful classic one design yachts with
their elegant sheer and they have been racing at Cowes since 1923. Their home club
is at Itchenor on Chichester Harbour, where they are raced very competitively throughout
the season, often by husband and wife crews, and always with a great class spirit.

All the Sunbeams have names ending in 'Y', and new ones are still being built, the latest addition to the fleet being Spray , V46. Cowes Week attracts Sunbeams from the fleet at Falmouth, which metamorphose into Solent Sunbeams by swapping their kitty gear for spinnakers and taking off their running backstays.

- Skandia Cowes Week Parade Village: A new initiative helping visitors learn more about sailing, from grass roots to full International and Olympic competition, this has been created by Wight Leisure (Isle of Wight Council) and will comprise a tented village housing a variety of retailers and artists, a public bar promoting the British Olympic Sailing Squad and an Exhibition named 'SEEDA Sail Racing Exhibition'.

The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and the Isle of Wight Economic Partnership have sponsored the costs of mounting the Exhibition. This is an informative and stimulating display to help visitors to Skandia Cowes Week to learn more about sailing, from grass roots to full International and Olympic competition. The Exhibition incorporates a History Of Cowes Week by the Newport Classic Boat Museum and covers the history from 1825 to the present day.

- On Wednesday 6 August ‘Elvis’ and his show comes to Cowes Parade. He will be
performing on the Parade stage from approx.1800-1900. Surrounded by his entourage and cabaret girls he will be coming ashore from the Lady Penelope, an unusual pink boat on loan from the Classic Boat Museum in Newport.