COWES WEEK IS BACK... BUT NOT QUITE BACK TO NORMAL. MAYBE SOME FRESH THINKING IS REQUIRED?
Technically speaking, the sailing world reopened last year as the pandemic eased, but at many of the biggest events it didn’t feel like it. Cowes Week 2021 was down on numbers and barely seemed to fill the Solent in the way that has made this event so famous. Ashore, the normally bustling and noisy high street felt ghostly and the pubs and bars empty. But 2022 was different.
While the fleet numbers were about the same as last year, the event felt vibrant once again with a noticeable buzz. The Cowes Yacht Haven seemed particularly lively thanks in part to the fresh, new concentration of carbon rocket ships with the arrival of the Cape 31 fleet. With 18 boats entered and with most of them crammed gunwale to gunwale in the basin, this class was the talk of the town.
Not only are they cool looking boats with a clear purpose of delivering an exciting downhill ride along with some close racing, but the one-design, amateur-driver nature of the class has been instrumental in drawing a wide range of sailors across the amateur/professional spectrum.
It was particularly good to see so many women among the Cape 31 crews, especially given this is not mandated in the class rules. The need for male muscle power has been an excuse for too long in the big boat world. While I don’t know what the catalyst has been for this welcome shift in the gender mix, I’d like to think that in part it’s down to a design that doesn’t require brute force and instead benefits from skills that are irrespective of gender, a feature commonplace in the dinghy scene.
Walking along the pontoons in the morning, sidestepping the sail bags and dock boxes while dodging the constant stream of crews moving back and forth, reminded those of us with a certain colour hair of the buzz that went with the Admirals’ Cup when Cowes was the centre of the racing world. Alongside the Cape 31s and the Quarter Ton fleet the 40-footers towered above them and looked just like big boats did back in the day.
The post-race chatter extended from the dockside to the beer tent where tall stories of downwind sleigh rides and wild wipe-outs did the rounds all afternoon.
Even in a world where most of the communication and results are online, the big screen scoreboards were back and being watched.
But exciting and welcome as this was, there were underlying issues that should be a cause for concern not just for Cowes Week, but for the sport as a whole.
From the events I’ve been to this year, pretty much all of them have seen a decline in numbers from 2021.
