Champagne Sailing with Raymarine at Cowes British Classic Week

This year’s British Classic Week, hosted by the British Classic Yacht Club (BCYC), was a week of two halves; with the first two days serving up strong winds and challenging conditions, and the second half providing some champagne sailing and well earned sunshine. Raymarine sponsored Day 3 of the regatta, ‘Women’s Day’, where female helms took control of the race and provided superb racing.

A high pressure weather system delivered sunshine and light winds on the morning of Day 3, and a Concours d’Elegance Parade was performed in front of the Royal Yacht Squadron as the fleet waited for the sea breeze to fill in.

By the 14:00 race start, there was a good southerly F3, and the fleet set off on the 8.8 nautical mile course into the Western Solent. Raymarine had provided a stash of Raymarine Tony’s Chocolonely for each racing yacht, to keep energy levels up out on the water.

On returning to the dock, the sun and salt-spray-soaked sailors were served up ice cold gin & tonics from the Raymarine demo van, alongside Raymarine branded IPA beer brewed by Salcome Brewery. A refreshing finish to the day! The crews then continued with an evening pontoon party, with live music and further refreshments from Dartmouth Gin.

Having sailed hard in the big winds at the start of the week, and then dominated in the light breeze in the second half of the regatta, it was the Metre yachts that triumphed overall in the event: with 8 Metre Anne Sophie from Germany winning the regatta’s ‘Large Yacht of the Week’ and 6 Metre Sioma winning ‘Small Yacht of the Week’.

Raymarine was pleased to see so many Raymarine systems onboard the Classic boats, including the new Raymarine Alpha instruments on Race Organiser Giovanni Belgrano's 'Whooper'. It was a pleasure to raise a (Raymarine branded) glass with this fantastic group of sailors and regatta organisers.

PHOTO CREDITS: CHRIS BROWN

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