BRITISH CLASSIC WEEK SETS SAIL TOMORROW
Cowes Yacht Haven has been filling up today (Sunday 19 July) with the 42 entries taking part due to take part in the 24th edition of British Classic Week. These range in length from the 1930s 12mRs Alan Dyke’s 23m Fife Miquette and the German-flagged Anita and the two Spirit Yachts Dido and Io of Dartmouth down to the 25 footers - Susan Rutter’s 1959/60 British Folkboat Folkdance and the Kim Holman-designed Stellas Andrew Gilmour’s Timoa and Jonathan Dyke’s Star Shell. The fleet is divided into five classes according to their IRC rating.
Racing will run from Monday, 20 July to Friday 24 July with a varied program: On Monday at 1115 there will be a Concours d’Elegance parade past the event’s host club, the Royal Yacht Squadron followed by a short inshore course, sponsored by Spirit Yachts. Tuesday, the yachts will sail a long inshore course (sponsored by OneSails GBR) around the Solent, while on Wednesday is the event’s Female & Youth (U25) Helm Race sponsored by Marineware & Awlgrip. Uniquely this is a pursuit race but finishing at a certain time (rather than a fixed finish line).
Another inshore race will be held on the Thursday sponsored by Pantaneus Sail & Motor Yacht Insurance, with the fleet splitting on the Friday for the event's conclusion: a race around the Isle of Wight for the offshore-capable and another Solent course for the remainder, both sponsored by Billecart-Salmon champagne.
The British Classic Week fleet assembles in Cowes Yacht Haven.
The racing will punctuated by an active social program including a welcome reception at the Royal Yacht Squadron, dinners at the Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club and the Regatta Supper at Cowes Events Centre and the popular dockside party where crews swap war stories and get to inspect each other’s boats.
One of the furthest-travelled this year is the 12mR Anita, having come from Kiel on the Baltic but flying the burgee of the Segelclub Rheingau near Wiesbaden in Germany. Built in 1938 by Abeking & Rasmussen, she is of a generation of 12mR built before the class was adopted by the America’s Cup from the late 1950s. Historically Anita spent most of her life detuned with a chopped-down rig in cruising trim. In this mode she logged some 300,000 miles including visits to Greenland and Iceland. In 2011 she was rebuilt as a racer and is now campaigned regularly, especially in the 12mR Baltic fleet.
This week she is skippered by Bernard Frieling a veteran of numerous Cowes Week and Fastnet Races in the 1970s and 80s. This week he is racing with half his old Hamburg crew from the infamous 1979s Fastnet Race. “We wanted to come and have another ‘once in a lifetime’ experience!” explains Frieling. “We always found Cowes and Solent sailing fantastic because you have these big fleets and it's interesting with the tides and nice surroundings. That's why we visited at least 10 times back in those days.” Much of Anita’s equipment has been donated to her from other 12mRs but as Frieling says: “We never will be the first... We don't have the latest equipment, but I think we are very good sailors...”
Aside form Miquette, Anita will face strong competition in Class 1 from the Spirit Yachts, Chris Cecil-Wright’s turboed Nicholson 55 Eager and the long campaigned S&S 41 Winsome of Dutch offshore veteran Harry J Heijst.
Boat building legend David Heritage aboard his beloved West Solent One Design Harlequin.
Racing three other West Solent One Designs in Class 4 this week will be well-known boatbuilder David Heritage, whose immaculately rebuilt Harlequin celebrates her centenary this year. Heritage was given Harlequin ten years ago and, despite his huge experience and ‘should know better’ he admits she proved “a bit of a wreck” resulting in a seven year-long refit. “The planking's original, the backbone's original, the ballast keel's original. The rest of it is basically new: All new timbers, frames, outer stem, everything above the gunwhale's new: Deck beams, deck, new boom, rudder, tiller, the lot!”
Harlequin was relaunched in 2023 and has a strong future with the West Solent One Design going through a resurgence. “They're lovely boats. It's got a big mainsail, big masthead kites, so there's plenty going on. They truck along really nicely and are well behaved,” says Heritage.
“This is my third British Classic Week - it's the best week of the year. Giovanni's [Belgrano] done a fantastic job with it: He's such a good sailor, and he knows how to make stuff happen. The courses are good. It's just a really nice vibe around the place. And people just appreciate the boats and what it takes to own a classic - whether it's a 20ft day boat or one of the big ones. They're expensive, but they're so rewarding. Having been a boatbuilder all my life, it's just lovely to see…”
In Class 4 Heritage will be up against the other West Solent One Designs - Claire Locke’s Enchanted, Angus Bates’ Erin and Tim Yetman’s Suvretta - plus the two Swan 36s Peter Morton’s Scherzo and Chris Hill’s Nora, Phil Hutchinson’s S&S One Tonner Sunmaid V, Andy Easdown’s 40ft S&S sloop Illiria and Clyde Linear 30 cutter Mikado of Michael Briggs.
Noah di Paola and Harry Embleton have delivered their motor yacht Maudorces south from Suffolk.
In addition to the 42 sailing yachts are four classic motor yachts. Delivered down from Aldeburgh, Suffolk over the last week is the 42ft Maudorces, built in 1925 with her early years spent on the Clyde, where, while serving as part of the Clyde River Patrol during WW2 she was blown up by a mine. Classic boatbuilder and long term British Classic Week supporter Peter Wilson of Aldeburgh Boatyard acquired her as a wreck in 2008 and set about a full restoration. Wilson was a well known Dragon builder, his work extending to the 50 Square Metre class and 8mR, himself campaigning the 1929 Bjarne Aas-designed If.
In 2022 ‘Maud’ made a circumnavigation of the British Isles, en route visiting that’s year British Classic Week and has visited every year since, where her crew mostly raced their 30 Square Metre Kaiser.
Sadly Wilson passed away in the spring bequeathing ‘Maud’ to his crew Noah di Paola and Harry Embleton. Since leaving Suffolk last week the crew of ‘Maud’ has been sprinkling Wilson’s ashes at various places en route, including Dover and Beachy Head and now Cowes and the Solent although the majority will be dispatched to the four winds in Wilson’s native Aldeburgh.
As to his event this year Regatta Director Giovanni Belgrano commented: “I am very excited about it. We have managed to attract a very high quality, interesting and diverse fleet. It is a great pleasure to walk down the dock and look at all these beautiful boats alongside each other with all their varnish sparkling away. That’s what the magic is all about.”
James Boyd/British Classic Week