BREAKING NEW GROUND AT BRITISH CLASSIC WEEK
Since taking over as British Classic Yacht Club Regatta Chairman in 2024, Giovanni Belgrano has sought to breath fresh life into British Classic Week, this year taking place out of Cowes Yacht Haven over 20-25 July. He is well placed to do so: now retired, Belgrano’s career as a high end race boat composite engineer took him to all of the world’s leading sailing events. To bring balance to his yachting life, in 2001 he acquired the 1939 Laurent Giles sloop Whooper which he has sailed and raced with great success, including five victories at British Classic Week. All this experience Belgrano is now channelling into his role at British Classic Week with the aim of improving every aspect of the event notably increasing the number of participating yachts, both for this year and, in particular, for the event’s 25th anniversary in 2027.
Getting the fundamental ethos of the British Classic Week right has been the first step. “The BCYC is a club of yachts, not of people,” Belgrano observes. “We're all very proud of our yachts. We put a lot of time and money into them to make them as good as we can and we sail them the best we can. The BCYC is there to facilitate our yachts being tied up alongside each other. British Classic Week is a 50-50 mix between the highest quality racing and great social interaction on the dock.”
With the racing run by Peter Saxton’s team from the Royal Yacht Squadron, pitching it as ‘classic-friendly’ is key. Some owners enjoy the close-racing competition, others just want to sail in company. Some wish to sail their classic in its original form, others wish to upgrade and modernise them. Having taken part in last autumn’s classic yacht events in the Mediterranean, Belgrano notes that this is where fundamental differences lie between the sport in the Med and the UK. “The scene there is fantastic and the yachts are fabulous, but they run it quite differently, more like a floating museum. Their CIM rule (Comité International de la Méditerranée) strictly ensures that yachts are not modified and remain as original as possible with massive penalties if you try and modernise them.”
In contrast, as much as one third of the British Classic Week yachts have been developed, many today being ‘multi-function’, ie they can race in classic events and regular races against modern yachts, or cruise efficiently. This is possible partly thanks to the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s IRC rating system, as used by British Classic Week, being able to create a level playing field between yachts of widely varying size, age and performance. Belgrano’s own Whooper is perhaps the most successful dual function classic ever, twice coming out top in the RORC’s IRC National Championship, twice lifting the prestigious Gold Roman Bowl for the Island Sailing Club’s Round the Island Race and Cowes Week. To achieve this Whooper has undergone continuous optimisation, with a lengthy list of upgrades that includes her now having two rigs, modern sails including non-overlapping jibs, and increased keel, centreboard and rudder area, etc.
Despite his personal preferences, an aim of Belgrano’s for British Classic Week is to attract more yachts wishing to compete in their original form. “We have a lot of trophies and prizes for authenticity, but this year to give more recognition to this, in each class, every boat that has been kept authentic – as determined by whether they’d qualify for the CIM’s ‘vintage class’ - will be eligible to win a ‘gold-standard’ Vintage perpetual trophy in each class, which is a gold sovereign. Plus, of course, we always have the Gaffer Trophy.”
The core base of the British Classic Week entry list is the dedicated group of beautiful smaller classics that return annually and are vital to the success of the fleet, but Belgrano would also love to attract larger famous classics such as the J Class and the giant schooners. Sir Thomas Lipton’s challenger for the 1930 America’s Cup, the J Shamrock V, was recently acquired and extensively refitted by a new owner who is a BCYC member, thus becoming the club’s de facto flagship, although not attending this year’s event.
Around 15 years ago British Classic Week permitted a limited number of ‘modern classics’ to enter, as typified by those from Spirit Yachts in Ipswich. “They're key, because they are very elegant and they will be the future classics. We highly value them,” says Belgrano.
The fleet is divided into five classes. Classes 4 and 5 (‘the Solent group’) are effectively small or day-racers but the remainder (‘the offshore group’) are divided by their IRC rating alone, thus modern classics mix with original classics, rather than being divided into separate classes. “They're so different in size that you get much closer racing if you divide them into IRC rating bands. But typically Class 1 are mostly modern classics anyway. In Class 2 they're mostly long keel boats while in Class 3 they’re more like Whooper, more manoeuvrable kind of boats.”
Between Belgrano and PRO Peter Saxton they plan a diverse range of races over the Monday to Friday. This includes inshore courses on the Solent taking between two and four hours, sponsored by Spirit Yachts, OneSails, Pantaenius Sail & Motor Yacht Insurance before a race around the Isle of Wight for Classes 1-3 on the Friday (while Classes 4-5 continue their program on the Solent). One of the greatest innovations to the sailing program is Wednesday’s pursuit race (conditions permitting), sponsored by Marineware and Awlgrip. Instead of having a physical finish line, results are taken from the order of boats recorded at the target finish time, for example 1430, assuming the slowest rated yacht is the first starter at 1210.
This proved spectacular last year, as Belgrano recalls:
“You've got your next slowest handicap boat just in front and the next fastest just behind you, so you're match racing all the way around the race course. Slowly the fleet compresses and compresses until you get to the finish time. Last time there were three boats almost abreast from completely different classes.”
This race has the added attraction that helms are either women or under 25-year-olds, which forms part of the regatta’s commitment to offer opportunities for female and youth sailors. There are other water-born events, such as ‘Concours d’elegance’ parade saluting past the Royal Yacht Squadron taking place on the opening day before the first race.
Of equal importance to the racing are the social events, as Belgrano stresses: “Every hour of sailing is matched by an hour of socials.” On the Sunday night before racing starts, there is an informal Welcome Supper at Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club. This will be followed on the Monday evening by a more formal Welcome Reception on the Royal Yacht Squadron lawn, where new BCYC members are presented with their burgees.
For Belgrano the highlight is Wednesday night’s ‘Open yachts’ pontoon party’ where everyone gets to inspect everyone else’s yachts and there will be pizza and drinks on the dock. “The pontoon party is what it's all about really. You can't get enough of it – and the time just flies.”
This is followed by the Regatta Supper and special trophies prize-giving at the Events Centre on the Thursday, the event concluding with the Dock Crew Party on the Friday.
Belgrano is optimistic about the event’s future. “Last year we had Cariad and Viveka and they said they loved it - the best regatta they'd ever done. So the word is getting out - they know about it in the Med. We will keep the quality high for this year and next year we are expecting an amazing turnout for our 25th anniversary."