Cowes Week
The Cowes Week is a sailing regatta , the races since 1826 annually in August in the Solent and around the Isle of Wight in southern England are held. Around 1,000 yachts with around 8,500 participants are currently taking part.
history
Cowes Week was initiated by the Royal Yacht Club and first took place on August 10, 1826 with seven yachts. The background was the interest of the Prince Regent and later King George IV and other gentlemen in yachting. The first race was awarded with a "trophy worth £ 100", further races had simple cash prizes.
Until the First World War it was mostly large cutters that were sailed by employed skippers and crews for gentlemen. The German yacht Germania owned by owner Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach took part in Cowes Week with great success and set records until 1914, when the war broke out, it was confiscated by customs in Southampton as a prize and auctioned off in the USA was sold.
Between the world wars , handicap classes were introduced which allowed races between different boat classes.
After the Second World War , sailing became popular for other sections of the population. The Admiral's Cup introduced in 1957 with the Fastnet Race , which was also organized from Cowes , contributed to this.
In 1996 Keith Beken was able to take spectacular pictures of the Bashford Howison 41-foot yacht Silk II , which was submerged with the bow in 28 knots of wind and gusts of 40 knots with a speed of around 19 knots and the stern was thereby lifted 90 ° in the air .
Today, many owners with 30- to 40-foot yachts take part in Cowes Week, which at times was called Skandia Cowes Week after a sponsor and is sponsored by Cowes Week Ltd. is aligned. For more than 150 years there has been a fireworks display at the end of the event .
Prices
- The Queen's Cup was donated to the Royal Southampton Yacht Club (RSYC) by Queen Victoria in 1897. Eleven boats took part in the first race on August 9, 1897, which was won by the largest boat in the race, the Latana , a 165-ton yawl from WM Johnston. Shortly after the turn of the century, the trophy was mysteriously lost and was only found in a thrift store in Cardiff in 1937 and bought back for £ 35. Today the Queen's Cup will be awarded by RSYC to winners of IRC Class 0 on the first Saturday of the regatta.
- The Kaiser Cup donated by Kaiser Wilhelm II , which Germania won before the First World War.
- In 1950, Sir Peter Scott defeated King George VI. proposed the establishment of a new award for larger yachts because it seemed that the America's Cup could not be revived. King George VI agreed and donated the Royal Yachting Association to The Britannia Cup . The Britannia Cup was won for the first time in 1951 by the yacht Taisser IV and Group Captain RJS Barton. Today the Britannia Cup will be awarded to the IRC Class 0 race winner on the first Wednesday of the regatta. Points earned in this race count towards the Admiral's Cup.
- In 1951, the New York Yacht Club of the Royal Yacht Squadron donated the New York Yacht Club Challenge Cup to mark the 100th anniversary of the victory that led to the America's Cup . Michael Mason's yacht Latifa won the award for the first time in 1951. Points earned in this Class 1 race of Cowes Week count towards the Admiral's Cup.
- Since 1995, on the Sunday after Cowes Week, the Skandia Young Skipper's Trophy has been awarded to skippers under the age of 25 who have achieved the best result on average in all races. It does not take into account different classes and is a prize for young talent.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Photos of the accident ( Memento of the original from September 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 25, 2009
