Regatta Report - Cowes Week
- Class Captain
- 5 days ago
- 10 min read
With all 16 boats entered, Cowes Week 2025 promised to be the busiest Daring racing we've had in a few years.
I hope you enjoy the report, and there are links to full results as well as photos and videos at the bottom.
Day 1 - Saturday
The race committee were challenged from the outset. Monday's forecast showed a light northwest breeze being replaced by a good southwesterly, but not until the middle of the afternoon.
A 2h postponement was called, whereupon half of Cowes descended on any pub able to show the Lions rugby. Unusually, we had fine weather in Cowes while Sydney was experience torrential rain!
Fortunately we weren't subjected to the second half of the match as we needed to go sailing. The Race Committee decided bravely to start boats before the SW had set in but this meant that there was a real risk that boats couldn't make it over the start line. The wind was swinging all around; while the first fleets started by slowly beating into the first stirrings of the SW, later White Group fleets were on the edge of hoisting kites for a reach as the NW returned!
Much of the action, from my perspective, took place in the first couple of legs. Many boats weren't able to make the line on time in the fickle breeze, and a large bunch towards the inshore end were causing mutual wind shadows. Offshore looked more promising, despite facing greater tide. Dauntless got a good start offshore, along with Streak, Defender, and Destroyer.
Inshore, a couple of boats got free quicker and made up good ground; the two red hulls of Derring~Do and Decoy, along with Debutante. Decoy and Debutante shared the lead for a bit as Dauntless came down onto them.
The key moment in the first leg though came towards the end, as we closed on Polly's Challenge (aka Gurnard East Bay). While Debutante, and now Streak, continued out of the tide inshore Dauntless went back offshore to reach up to the mark. The gentle wind then went left, and stayed there; advantage inshore. Dauntless laboured to the mark while Streak and Debutante rounded ahead.
On the downwind leg to Lee-on-Solent, Debutante went quite far right on the run but, despite staying in the flooding channel, struggled to keep good speed. Meanwhile, Streak and Dauntless skirted on the northern edge of the channel. Streak stayed ahead for half the leg but was eventually overhauled as the boats started gybing to the South of the post.
Dynamite, who went further left than anybody, did the best as the new breeze began to fill in from astern, compressing the fleet. She overhauled Debutante to take third.
The day then proceeded in a straightforward SW breeze but I'm afraid that I can't comment much more than that as the fleet was very spread out due to the challenging wind. We beat back to near West Bramble, reached to North Ryde Middle, and came home. Finish order: Dauntless, Streak, Dynamite.
Day 2 - Sunday
Sunday brought strong SW winds.
Doublet recovered to 3rd on the last leg home from East Bramble. Again starting from the RYS line, we first went to Cowes Yacht Haven. The wind was more stable than the day before and but there was a real focus on managing the power in the boat.
Our first sight of potential trouble was when the fleet passed one of the sportsboats, turtled near Beaulieu. Dauntless and then (more successfully) Destroyer, passing first and second respectively, ensured that the radio message was passed to the coastguard.
Rounding MDL Marinas to starboard, the class then proceeded to march up and down the Solent for over 15 miles in a 3-hour race. While the wind dropped a little towards the end, for much of the day BrambleMet was recording averages in the low twenties and gusts in the high twenties.
The fleet passed an SB20 sailor in the water being aided by a RIB; a Dragon with a broken mast; a Redwing was later towed in, again with half a mast, as we finished. No breakages that I heard of in the Darings however, and Dauntless had a smooth race under the small kite to take first from Darling by a good margin.
The surprise of the day though was to see Doublet, who had struggled in the first half of the race having started with the jib only half hoisted, coming from nowhere up the Island shore on the final beat back from East Bramble. In doing so, they disappoint both Darius and Destroyer to take third.
That evening, with a storm brewing, racing was cancelled for Monday.
Day 3 - Tuesday
A new day, a new breeze. Today, it was a shifty and patchy NW breeze, with vicious gusts in places but some quite challenging soft areas too. It was Ladies' Day, and Audax celebrated with an all-female crew.
In an ebb tide for the whole race, the immediate need off the line was to get offshore for the beat over to Lepe Spit. However, in their eagerness for the pin, a large number of boats ended up above the layline and, reaching over those below, ended up OCS. Below you can find a pretty humbling video, courtesy of Stephen Dirou!
As the fleet shook itself out, familiar names crept to the front. Darling, Doublet and Destroyer were around the mark first, with Dauntless having overstood and rounding with Defiant. The fleet turned for a spinnaker reach up to Jane in the Northern area of the Brambles Bank, where they would bear away for a run to Ben F Wood on its Southern edge.
Dauntless pulled away from Defiant and started to creep up on the boats ahead but then nearly blew it, with their spinnaker sheet shaking itself loose in a little gust. However, they recovered their composure and had re-hoisted before losing places. Later on the run, Darling looked to have a similar issue with a sheet and Doublet lost both their halyard and their pole, and sailed the rest of the race under white sails. Destroyer seemed relatively trouble-free and the four boats rounded Ben F Wood fairly close.
A beat-run-beat sequence followed, between yellows off Lepe and West Ryde Middle. While Doublet suffered a little on the runs although not too badly given the wind strength. They recovered though as on both beats they sniffed the shifts and pulled out astonishing gains. By the end of the run to West Ryde Middle, Dauntless had taken the lead by staying left over the Brambles bank for longer. Dynamite was catching from astern of Dauntless, and on the right of the track it was Darling who had stretched out from Doublet and Destroyer.
With the race closing to a climax, the last beat was back to MDL Marinas near Lepe. With the fleet distracted by a coming container vessel from the South, Doublet made the decision to cross the Southampton channel earlier than most. In doing so she appeared to avoid the large area of patchy, flukey wind that other boats found further North and she appeared from nowhere, 200m ahead of Dauntless who had been covering Darling. She had made up probably 500m in one leg.
However, the race wasn't over. She had to defend her lead on, first, a reach back over to Gurnard cardinal. This was achieved without too much loss, as Dauntless flew the big kite on a fine angle. However, the last run to the RYS line against the vestiges of an ebb tide was a different prospect.
Dauntless closed fast, sitting on her wind, and then looked to pass to leeward on Starboard gybe. However, Doublet first gybed close across Dauntless' bows and then gybed back with the intention of luffing hard. Dauntless observed that the beach should be considered an obstruction, and then it was a straight drag race to the finish.
As they crossed the line to two successive guns, it wasn't clear who had won. But as the results were published, Doublet's late move for the biased offshore lane was vindicated. They won - by a second.
Darling crossed the line in third, but sadly was classed as OCS and so Destroyer rounded out the podium.
Day 4 - Wednesday
Wednesday started with a delay to wait for the SW gradient wind - typical, on the day where we were due back for drinks afterwards! Nonetheless, by 1430 we were off.
The course had few corners to turn but some long legs. We started with a beat to Salt Mead, beyond Thorness; then a run back to Right Bay (aka Polly's Challenge); and then another beat to Monex Marine at the far end of Thorness Bay.
As the ebb was still present offshore, there was a battle for the pin end and the ability to tack out early, which was initially won by Dauntless. However, the wind bend inshore benefited several boats - the new wind was still shifty, oscillating by 20+ degrees - and by the time that the first leg was complete it was Darling by 100m from Dancer and Dauntless.
It was amusing to watch Richard Ottaway locked in battle with his old boat, Decoy, while he made a guest appearance on the helm of Debutante!
The long, slow run back to Gurnard had some patchy holes and it was a challenge to find the pressure as it came down the course. For a while, Darling looked vulnerable inshore but maintained a much-reduced lead from Dancer at the leeward mark. Behind, after Dauntless there was a large gap to the rest of the fleet. Nonetheless, Doublet was seen charging down the inside while Destroyer looked to have fallen back with a move offshore. Doublet recovered significant ground on that leg, having had an inauspicious start and a slow first few miles. Generally, by now, the fleet had compressed a bit.
By the time of arrival at Right Bay, the tide seemed to have turned inshore. Some boats tried one last stitch out, but there was a growing recognition that we would be beating around Gurnard and Baxters ledges at low tide.
While the wind had been patchy and shifty before, this was really where the game of snakes and ladders began. At least five different boats had a sniff of the lead at points on this leg, and at no point was it certain who would come out best. At one point Dreamer, standing much further offshore, looked to have good pressure and would sail around the fleet but then blessedly the wind filled inshore. Dauntless defended hard against Doublet with some close tacking on the point, but then Doublet nailed a very trickly layline to get them past the threatening, exposed ledge and into the relief of Thorness Bay. Dancer and Dreamer had faded.
Darling was sailing off into the distance for her win, redeeming herself after the previous day's OCS, but there was still something to play for between Doublet and Dauntless, who rounded just behind. On the final leg, Dauntless first caught and then slightly overhauled Doublet to leeward on Port gybe. Doublet headed up, and sailed some larger angles while dropping the jib; when they came back together after both had gybed, Doublet had recovered her lead and hung on to take second.
Day 5 - Thursday
On Thursday, the Darings started on a committee vessel line out towards the Ryde Middle Bank. It was forecast F3-F4 SW but gusty, with an ebb tide all day. I'm afraid my report will be a bit vague, having been working our way back from the back of the fleet!
The start was a mixed bag, with many boats including series leaders starting far short of the line. Boats tacking out onto Starboard lost out on the first leg, and we on Dauntless were far down the pan. It appeared that Diamond was first around the weather mark (Collette, Osborne Bay) but they faded after going too high for the reach down to Kemps Quay, off Ryde. They confess to have been aiming for Quarr, halfway between but inshore, instead! The tidal relief wasn't anything much to help them, either. When boats came back together at Kemps Quay, Doublet appeared to have made up from a terrible start and was leading from Dynamite.
What followed was lots of short legs, with short but true beats and offset runs, to bring us crabbing up the Solent hitting almost every mark in Osborne Bay and on the Ryde Middle Bank. Josh Voller, on Doublet, commented that Dynamite was closing on the runs and falling behind in the beats. The positions didn't change though, and they were followed by Darius to take third for their best result of the week.
Just behind, if you'll indulge the author, Dauntless had recovered from an abysmal start and a poor first two legs. She was exchanging places on a tight final beat with Destroyer who put in an excellent lee-bow tack and squeeze to try to preserve her place as boats closed the line on Starboard. However, her final luff was perhaps a moment too early and long. Dauntless tacked off and maintained momentum to take fourth, by a single second.
Day 6 - Friday
As the final day dawned, there were battles to be fought all over. For the win, Doublet and Dauntless had identical tallies, although Doublet had been on the rise and Dauntless fading all week. For third, Darius could have taken Destroyer if she won the race. Dynamite was lying fifth, with Streak only a few points behind. A similar story of places to be gained went on up the fleet.
The course was simple and very similar to Wednesday, which worried us on Dauntless. We would beat to Gurnard Ledge, run back to against the tide to CHS off the green, beat back to Salt Mead beyond Thorness, and run home. It was clear another classic downwind, uptide Squadron finish was in the offing.
Dauntless made a good start, as did Defiant and Streak. Doublet were a few lengths to leeward, short of the line, and their position was exacerbated by Derring~Do tacking in their water (later taking a penalty).
When boats came back together at the windward mark, the fleet was quite tight with Defiant leading from Streak and Dauntless. However, Dauntless hoisted quickly, stayed high and headed for the shore, rolling the boats ahead. From there she made good time and kept clean air to stay out of trouble and well clear of the fleet for the next three legs. Defiant faded while Streak took second and Darius third, separated by only three seconds.
Conclusion
Dauntless had won the week, holding off an excellent campaign from Doublet who seemed to have the golden touch in terms of tactics for much of the week. Destroyer held on to third by the skin of their teeth - eleven seconds (three gained by Darius and seven lost by Destroyer) would have swung it).
A special mention however goes to Darius, who won the Division Belle trophy for the best boat with 3+ helms on board. I challenge our history buffs to find a time where a boat has had more helms (5) than her ranking (4)!
Elsewhere, I'd like to note Decoy, under Jo Manser and Campbell Flemming, participating in their first Cowes Week in the class. They certainly found some boats to beat on the water on most days, and showed some promising first-leg pace at times.
Everybody participated in the spirit I love to see in the class - corinthian, but competitive. Long may it last.
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