Cowes Week 2025 Day 2 - Tight racing, big waves and family fun
by Gael Pawson 3 Aug 13:06 PDT
2-8 August 2025
The second day of racing at Cowes Week 2025 proved much easier for the Race Officers, with a good breeze, which enabled all classes to get away on time and delivered great, competitive racing across all fleets.
First to set off for the day were the J/70s at 1030. As with most of the day's Squadron starts, the fleet fought it out for the pin end, with the breeze steadier and stronger than inshore. The other White Group classes followed with a similar pattern. A small drama for Athena during the XOD start, when one of their crew members fell overboard, but they executed a perfect recovery and carried on racing to finish 24th.
As the breeze built there were more than a few retirements and a couple of lost rigs amongst the smaller boats.
The Cape 31s were enjoying their first day on their own startline at Committee Vessel 1, competing for their mini-series which finishes on Tuesday. Three windward-leeward races gave the fleet plenty of opportunity to make the most of the waves and good breeze, resulting in some spectacular footage.
The big boats put a bit of a spectacle as they powered down to finish off the Squadron line, with Coco de Mer in Performance Cruiser A leading the way. Flying Jenny led the Cape 31s over the line, while in IRC Zero it was Braveheart which took the line honours and the class win.
Class detail
In IRC3, there were two retirements, Malice and Full Circle. Yesterdays' runner-up Ziggy was the race winner, with Whooper second and Njord third. Ed Mockridge's JPK1010 Elaine Again was racing in full family mode: 'We've got a young crew including six under 13s and six adults, so we played it relatively safe,' explained Ed. 'It's a little different to sailing with a full crew, it's great fun, you realise the sort of stuff you take for granted - seeing it again through the eyes of a small person who gets excited about things all the time. We were predominately racing on an elongated windward leeward.' Ed said the good thing about racing at Cowes is: 'You get a chance to stretch your legs and explain what is going on.'
The younger crew described their day as: 'Lots of fun; billions and billions of fun' and their highlights included watching daddy get wet on the foredeck, and, for Peter, aged 10 'Getting wet at the front of the boat.'
In Performance Cruiser B, it was another good day for the Reflex 38 Cougar, taking their second class win in a row. Elidie was second and Hawksbill Rum third. In fourth place was Dan Snow's Swan 37 Mojitabel who is sailing with a family crew all week, including ten-year-old son Wolfy. Dan explained the appeal of taking part in Cowes Week as a family: 'I like sailing as a family because it gives you something more constructive as a family to do, and you build a more mature, adult relationship with your kids. You see the kids growing, you see them learning, you're outside together... You're having great chats in between moments of great excitement and problem solving as a family, it's just the best way of bonding and watching your kids grow and learn.'
'I think it is the best thing you can do,' says Mojitabel skipper Rory Heron. 'I've sailed on every kind of racing boat since I was very young and I've never enjoyed it as much as sailing with family and friends, you just can't beat it.'
In IRC7, the H-Boat Wight Wedding leads with two race wins. Second both yesterday and today was the Sonata Sonic, sailed by the Leather family.
The start for the Etchells saw the boats lining up at the pin end. No Dramas, closest to the Squadron, tacked early onto port some 20 seconds after the gun and ducked Mano to find a lane with Jolly Roger to leeward. These three led the shoreside end of the fleet as the boats spread out, heading for their first mark, Cowes Yacht Haven, before the long reach/run to TeamO on the Calshot shore, on downwind to hamblewinterseries.com, back to Williams Shipping, taking a hitch up to Hill Head, South Bramble, East Bramble to finish on the Breakwater line. It was Tango who came out first after what was a big day out for the smaller boats, Palava second, Desperate third and yesterday's race winner No Dramas fourth.
Andy Beadsworth is enjoying the week sailing with son Josh on No Dramas: 'We started to the left with the current going with us, it wasn't a great start, so we were last to the mark. Then we had a really good reach, took about four boats, and more on the run, a good beat and got back to fifth or fourth. That was complicated as there was a change in tide and we weren't sure whether to go over the bank or stay out in the channel. Then we had a run back on to the Meon foreshore, another beat, another run and we were third round the last mark. But then we had a lot of water in the boat, the pump wasn't working properly and we overstood the mark, we finished fourth. It was a good race, two or three good beats, good runs, planing and surfing, some nice waves...
'It's great to sail with your son, it's great to sail with three young guys, it's great to be involved all doing it together chatting about what we did well and what we did wrong. They're doing all the nav... it's our fourth year, so they were only 11/12 when we first did it together.'
Also on the Squadron line, the Redwings saw a full turnout of 17 boats, furthest inshore was Gosling, sailed by the Gosling family. Sisters Serena and Rosie Gosling have been taking it in turns to helm, Rosie described their race: 'We had an amazing day today, really good breeze. We had a great start fun beat up the green and manged to hold onto the front of the fleet and finished in fourth.
On sailing as a family, Serena says: 'We love it, we've been doing it for 25 years in this boat, we try to stick to family crew, we used to sail with our dad as well.'
With Storm Floris bringing strong winds and big gusts tomorrow, the Race Committee has made the decision to cancel all racing tomorrow in the interests of safety.
Fortunately, there's plenty going on ashore it's also Charity Day, which is dedicated to fundraising and raising awareness for various charities. Autism on the Water and the RNLI are official charity partners this year, but there are various charities sailing in the week including Scaramouche Sailing Trust and the Andrew Cassell Foundation.
Read more about the shoreside entertainment planned for tomorrow here, and follow the news updates for sailing on Tuesday on the website or on the app.