The Future of Cowes Week

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Is it really the place for a boat load of beginners?

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As I said in my previous post the boat I sailed on had a scratch crew who all had previous sailing experience and they were backed up by a skipper and mate. But what would be so wrong with a boat full of beginners trying to experience what racing and Cowes week is all about. What harm do they honestly do? Maybe you consider Cowes week should only be for the sailing 'elite' in their shorts and boots with sunglasses on their head?

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I think if you have to ask what harm they would do, you shouldn't be out there - you wouldn't chuck a beginner out on a formula 1 race track, <u>some</u> races at Cowes Week are the equivalent.

Also if you check back over my posts you will see that I am the first to mock the shorts, boots and sunglasses brigade who have braved the crossing of the Solent ocean - they aren't the sailing elite, they are more likely to be the corporate/Ascot/Esssex crowd that I am referring to. You wouldn't notice the racing "elite" and you probably won't find them anywhere near the Yacht Haven beer tent.
 
I have similar feelings about the Round the Island, which has become much more of a jolly day out than it used to be, and hence more dangerous. Mixing skippers who are nervous at being 50m from the next boat in amongst those who are happy with a 50cm gap is bound to lead to tears.
 
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think if you have to ask what harm they would do, you shouldn't be out there

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errm..I'm not saying they should be out their on their own. The crew I was with had the support of a skipper and mate.

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you wouldn't chuck a beginner out on a formula 1 race track, <u>some</u> races at Cowes Week are the equivalent.

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No, I would agree here. I wouldn't want to see a boat full of racing beginners in some of the big classes. But what is wrong with a class having its own start just to give people a taste. I'm guessing that is why OnDeck had their own start this year.

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Also if you check back over my posts you will see that I am the first to mock the shorts, boots and sunglasses brigade who have braved the crossing of the Solent ocean

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On that we agree 100%.

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You wouldn't notice the racing "elite" and you probably won't find them anywhere near the Yacht Haven beer tent.

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I don't think anyone was in the Yacht Haven beer tent this year. We were all in the Pier View. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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the whole thing seems as bad as Disneyland for emptying your wallet. Everything costs way more than it should, and it's not as if the racing makes up for it....



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The thought of Cowes Yacht Haven being empty in summer as there is no sponser for Cowes Week has made me cry - with laughter.

I never go there now as I got fed up with the warmth of the welcome in winter and told to P*ss off in Summer as they are fully booked with Sunsail boats.
 
It wasn't just Skandia who were sponsoring Cowes Week. They were just the major title sponsor. I expect 2009 will see a number of smaller companies upping their sponsorship.
 
I have always avoided Cowes week until 2008. In previous years I had heeded the word of old salts who have said much of the above for years. Lutine is always on corporate charter and many of the other skippers I've sailed with avoid the place like the plague for the week.

This year, however, LLYC had our second boat available to members for (what I think was) the first time so I booked out a day and then got asked to skipper for a second one.

I truly can not stand the Ladies Day at Ascot culture (although I never did really like flat racing), I no longer go to Polo and I decline invites to Henley. I'm not terribly attracted to the Goodwood Festival of Speed either.

All that considered, it came as a great suprise to me that I really enjoyed Cowes. Yes it was crowded but I didn't have to wait too long for a beer and even got a table in the anchor, which doesn't happen most summer weekends. The sailing was excellant with far more interesting courses than one normally gets. On the Saturday, I only had two crew and decided that it wasn't enough to race the 707 on a very windy day. Happilly we managed to get places on berths elsewhere and found the black fleet's course to be just as interesting.

The atmosphere ashore far better than I expected and I have already put in for a marina berth for Feeling Rough for 2009.

As for the sponsors, well I have been thinking all summer that sailing as a whole is going to suffer from the CC. I've got my doubts about whether JPM will be able to renew on the RTIR and Skandia were already out of Cowes week, however on a less headline grabbing level, those corportate charters which keep the charter boats viable and who make Cowes a 7 day per week market during the whole summer are going to fall away. We may well see a move away from corporate fueled events but so long as club members are prepared to muck in and roll their sleeves up, that may be no bad thing.
Certainly there is an enourmous amount of fat in (some of the) compannies running some events and they would be much better run by enthusiastic amateaurs!
compannies that
 
I did the week last year from Warsash and it was great with lovely conditions - pretty economical from the mainland and crew changes easy. Would have been good to pop ashore in Cowes once or twice but there is nowhere to temporalily berth up.

Who knows what will happen in 2009 but a big title sponsor may be tricky to attract currently - what about a bank or financial institution? I guess not.

Still let's take heart we are contributing a shed load of money to them for screwing up eh!
 
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Every other person seems to have a VIP tag hanging round their neck (and they believe they are) and the charter companies have set up on the marina with "Be a professional yacht racer for a day" signs - people pay their 120 quid or so, are put in oilies and go out and sit on the windward rail thinking they are racing.

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I went out on one of these boats for the day with OnDeck and none of the clients just sat on the windward rail. They took an active role in sailing the boat. All of the people on the boat had sailed before, some in just dinghies, and were just trying to find out if racing or big boats was for them. None of them were 'Hooray Henrys' on the Ascot circuit. They were ordinary people. If it introduces more people to yacht racing what is the problem.

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Yottie snobbism is the problem. And it's alive and well and here in spades by the sound of it. Get over yourselves some of you guys.
 
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Yottie snobbism is the problem. And it's alive and well and here in spades by the sound of it. Get over yourselves some of you guys.

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Nothing to do with snobbism, just economics and fun factors.

With limited funds and/or time off you have to choose your regattas carefully. Dartmouth etc are well in the accendency with great racing properly run from comittee boats, and great parties ashore.
Cowes seems to me, and many others, just a rip-off. And without the top level racing to make up for it.
 
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Every other person seems to have a VIP tag hanging round their neck (and they believe they are) and the charter companies have set up on the marina with "Be a professional yacht racer for a day" signs - people pay their 120 quid or so, are put in oilies and go out and sit on the windward rail thinking they are racing.

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I went out on one of these boats for the day with OnDeck and none of the clients just sat on the windward rail. They took an active role in sailing the boat. All of the people on the boat had sailed before, some in just dinghies, and were just trying to find out if racing or big boats was for them. None of them were 'Hooray Henrys' on the Ascot circuit. They were ordinary people. If it introduces more people to yacht racing what is the problem.

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Yottie snobbism is the problem. And it's alive and well and here in spades by the sound of it. Get over yourselves some of you guys.

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Partly right - snobbism is a problem, but mostly from the non-yotties who are ruining what was at one time the ultimate yottie event.

Originally a rich boat owner would get his yacht to Cowes and pay a local professional crew to race it for him. After racing the crew would go to their local pub and home, the owner would go to his yacht club and everyone enjoyed their relative parts in the whole event.

Now a hired hand brings the a corporate boat to Cowes, people then pay to crew it, the hired hand goes home after the racing and the paying customers go to the substitute "yacht clubs" (because they probably don't belong to one) in the marinas where the non yotties look down their noses at them.

The whole thing has become a bit of a social mess, just like the rest of British society, where no one really acknowledges what it is all about - yachting.

Cowes Week really does need to stand back and rediscover itself.
 
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