A Dragon built in 1947 and given to the Duke of Edinburgh as a wedding present is heading to the Dragon World Championships in Hong Kong later this year, carrying a piece of Cowes Week history with it. Bluebottle, now sailed by Graham and Julia Bailey with crew Will Bedford and Killian Boag, posted a commanding win in today's Dragon fleet, crossing the line with nearly a minute in hand over Ivan Bradbury's Blue Haze, which was in turn just nine seconds clear of Simon Barter's Bertie.
After years ashore, Bluebottle was restored by Cowes boatbuilder David Heritage and has since become competitive at international Dragon events across Europe. The crew connections add another layer: Will Bedford is the son of Solent legend David Bedford, while Killian Boag is the son of Solent and Olympic legend Shirley Robertson.
Day two at North Sails Cowes Week had 641 boats racing across the Solent in the event's 200th regatta. Princess Anne fired the first starting gun at the Royal Yacht Squadron. Five-times Olympic gold medallist Sir Ben Ainslie made his first appearance of the week aboard IRC Class One entry Fargo, but despite three hours of racing in 8 to 14 knots and bright sunshine in the eastern Solent, the podium eluded him. The win went to Callisto, sailed by James Murray, with international navigator Ian Moore on board. Moore lives just three miles from the start line.
The Folkboat Class, with 19 entries earning its own dedicated start this year, is shaping into a tight contest. Ray Mitchell's If Only has been on the podium more often than not but sits a single point behind Gybe N, sailed by Cy Grisley and Simon Evans, after four races.
At the other end of the design spectrum, the J/70 fleet is squeezing in three races a day in their mini-series. Martin Dent's Jelvis leads after sharing a dead heat in Race 6 with Simon Perry's Jiraffe.
In the Flying 15s, designed by Cowes legend Uffa Fox, the usually dominant Men Behaving Badly skippered by Rupert Mander slipped to third. Graham Deegan's A6 took the win, with Richard Jordan's Off Course second. Sunday was also Family Day, with Contessa 32 Andaxi, sailed by Donna and Martin Rouse-Collen, back on the early scoreboard.
The regatta traces its origins to 199 years ago, when seven small cutters gathered for what became the very first Cowes Week. The organisational scale is now altogether different. Over 200 volunteers drawn from the Cowes Combined Clubs, the authority the Duke of Edinburgh championed into existence in 1964, make the event function alongside a professional course-setting and race management system.
As one competitor summed it up in the beer tent afterwards: "If you didn't enjoy that you should probably take up a different sport."
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