Cowes Week Prometheus 41 Sailing Race: A Taste of Nassau & Paradise Island

A Castle Built by Henry VIII (Give or Take Three Centuries)

I drove down to the Isle of Wight on the eve of battle, crossed the Solent and pitched up in Ryde at the Ryde Castle Hotel, a crenellated confection on the Esplanade. The hotel’s own literature will tell you, with a perfectly straight face, that Henry VIII built it to see off the Spanish. Historic England, a body not given to flights of fancy, dates it to around 1840 and notes that it began life as a private house dressed up in castle costume. I prefer the Tudor version, naturally, but I also prefer to sleep in a building whose plumbing postdates the Armada.

It is a sweet old place, a touch faded around the edges, rather like a dowager duchess who still wears her pearls to breakfast. The great joy is the large terrace, which faces the seafront road and, beyond it, a wide sweep of sandy beach, the Solent glittering away and Portsmouth sitting across the water looking busy. A glass of something cold out there as the light softens is as fine an apéritif as the English coast can offer.

Dinner at The Duck: No Canard About It

Dinner was a short stroll along the front at The Duck, on Appley Rise, a friendly and relaxed restaurant right on the road facing the beach, beside the old canoe lake. The French use canard for a duck and also for a tall tale, so allow me to state plainly that this is no canard: it is a genuinely quaint spot, run by chef-owner Charlie Bartlett, where nobody minds if you arrive smelling faintly of sea air and nervous anticipation. The lights of Southsea twinkled across the water, the wine flowed at a sensible pace and I retired early, like a racehorse before the Derby. A rather portly racehorse, admittedly.

The Bahamas Sails Into Cowes for the Bicentenary

This was no ordinary year at Cowes. North Sails Cowes Week 2026 marked the regatta’s 200th anniversary, the first having been sailed in August 1826 when a handful of cutters raced off Cowes Castle. Two centuries later the town was heaving.

Among the guests of honour was the Nassau & Paradise Island Promotion Board, the regatta’s Official Destination Partner, who had come to bring a taste of The Bahamas and the spirit and effortless luxury of The Ocean Club to the Isle of Wight. The pairing makes more sense than you might think: sailing is the national sport of The Bahamas, and both islands have salt water running through their veins.

The Ocean Club itself has a pedigree to rival any yacht club. The A&P supermarket heir Huntington Hartford II bought a sliver of land then known, with magnificent lack of glamour, as Hog Island, renamed it Paradise Island and opened The Ocean Club in 1962. He filled the grounds with terraced Versailles Gardens, European statuary and a 12th-century Augustinian cloister shipped over from France stone by stone. James Bond later swam off its beach and played poker in its bar in Casino Royale. Now a Four Seasons resort, it remains the sort of place where one would happily be becalmed indefinitely.

Briefing at the Island Sailing Club

Next morning it was off to the Island Sailing Club in Cowes for our briefing. Ten boats were racing in the Prometheus 41 class, all of them identical Jeanneau 41 yachts, which is the delicious cruelty of one-design racing: there is no hiding behind a slower hull or older sails. Whatever happens, c’est la faute de l’équipage.

The racing was run by Prometheus Sailing, the Port Solent outfit that used to trade as Sunsail UK before a management buyout set the team up under their own colours. They are the Official Charter Partner of Cowes Week and, crucially for people like me, they make it possible to turn up with enthusiasm, a sunhat and very little else.

Our boat flew the colours of Nassau & Paradise Island. Our skipper was Charles, who also captains the Southampton Sailing Week boat, and our first mate was Paul. Before the start they put us through our paces: the noble art of the winch, how to prepare the sails, and how to move very quickly indeed when the kite (sailor for spinnaker, and nothing to do with Mary Poppins) was called for. I took notes. Mentally. Mostly.

Under Starter’s Orders From the Royal Yacht Squadron

At 12.25 the cannon boomed from the Royal Yacht Squadron, and at 12.30 we crossed the Squadron line, along with a good deal of nervous laughter. Two to three hours of racing lay ahead, with a finish around half past three.

We had barely begun when a yacht swooped in from our left, bearing down on us in the classic manner of a pirate film boarding party. She was Mermaid, one of our fellow Prometheus boats, flying the colours of the Isle of Wight Distillery’s Mermaid gin. Being rammed by a gin brand before lunch is a first, even for me. There was a light bounce, a few choice words in several languages, and we gathered ourselves and turned our attention back to the course: three buoys, scattered across the Solent like breadcrumbs.

Our start, alas, had been well and truly scuppered. We were last, with quite a bit of water to make up.

The Gentle Art of the Grind

Charles and Paul assigned us our positions on the winches and we ground those handles as fast as human arms allow. “Grind” swiftly became the mot du jour, and I regret to report that every possible euphemism was thoroughly explored and chortled at, as befits a crew of grown adults on a sunny afternoon.

A special salute to Juliana, who demonstrated that women are equal to men at this business. No, I tell a lie: better. She out-ground every one of us, and it was hard work, too, as the sail loaded up and the boom came in tight. Chapeau, madame.

Then came the tacks, each one a small ballet of ropes, shouts and elbows, and the quick turns around the buoys. For a glorious while we were reeling in the fleet, and I began to compose my victory speech.

Becalmed in the Solent Doldrums

Sailing has a wicked sense of humour. Heading for the last buoy, the wind simply clocked off, leaving us drifting on a millpond in full sunshine, sails hanging like laundry on a Sunday. We crept, we coaxed, we stared hard at the water in the hope of conjuring a ripple.

We came tenth. This would have been a pretty creditable result in a race of a hundred. There were, of course, ten of us. Still, as Eric Idle advised in Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, albeit somewhat off-key, there is always a sunny side to be found, and IX Magazine’s own motto has never been more apt: life is a tour, not a race. For the record, the class honours over the week went to Deloitte Green, with Hawksbill Rum on the podium in third, which I suspect pleased our Bahamian hosts more than they let on.

None of it mattered a jot. The company on board was superb, my fellow sailors were all fascinating, the sun shone, and our skipper and first mate were utterly charming and made our day. I am already looking forward to next year, when I intend to finish ninth.

Après Sail in Cowes: Where Every Crew Is a Winner

Back in Cowes the party was going hard. Tents and stalls along the waterfront offered food, wine, beer and cocktails, and the whole town hummed like a well-tuned engine. We headed over to the Island Sailing Club for après sailing and the prize giving for the day’s winning crews, where we applauded with the generous spirit of those who knew perfectly well they would not be called up.

Cowes Week is somewhat exceptional. The ambience is wonderfully multihued: laid-back sailors in faded shorts, posh yacht club members in immaculate blazers, international travellers from every port in the world eager to soak up the exceptional British summer we were enjoying, and day trippers revelling in the whole fabulous spectacle. Yacht sails and glasses clink in the breeze, flags flap, and the gulls soar overhead, spying out any ice cream eater unaware of their presence. It is, without doubt, one of the finest atmospheres you could ever hope to experience.

À l’Année Prochaine

Two hundred years on, Cowes still does what it does best: it takes the serious business of yacht racing and wraps it in sunshine, gin and gossip. Come for the sailing, stay for the Squadron cannon and the sunset, and if you find yourself last at the first buoy, take heart. Tenth out of ten still beats watching from the shore.

Cowes Week FAQ: Everything You Wanted to Know but Were Too Busy Grinding to Ask

When is Cowes Week held?
Cowes Week traditionally takes place in early August, falling between Glorious Goodwood and the Glorious Twelfth. The bicentenary edition, North Sails Cowes Week 2026, ran from Saturday 1 to Friday 7 August 2026.

Why was Cowes Week 2026 special?
It marked 200 years of racing, the first Cowes regatta having been held in August 1826. Some 642 boats and around 5,000 competitors raced across 36 classes, North Sails came aboard as title sponsor and the Friday night fireworks returned.

What is the Prometheus 41 class at Cowes Week?
It is a dedicated one-design racing class run by Prometheus Sailing, the Official Charter Partner of Cowes Week. Every boat is an identical Jeanneau 41 yacht crewed by a professional skipper and first mate, so results come down to crew work and tactics rather than equipment.

Can a complete beginner race at Cowes Week?
Yes. Prometheus Sailing’s Rock Up and Race packages require no previous experience and include a professional skipper and first mate, race entry, wet weather gear, lunch and an après sail drink. At the time of writing, single day places for 2027 are advertised at £345 per person including VAT.

Who was the Official Destination Partner of Cowes Week 2026?
The Nassau & Paradise Island Promotion Board, which entered its own yacht in the Prometheus 41 class and hosted events across the week to showcase The Bahamas.

What is The Ocean Club in the Bahamas?
The Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort, is a luxury resort on Paradise Island, Nassau. It was opened in 1962 by A&P heir Huntington Hartford II and is famous for its Versailles Gardens, a 12th-century French Augustinian cloister and its starring role in the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale.

Where does Cowes Week racing start?
Most classes start from the Royal Yacht Squadron line off the Squadron’s castle in Cowes, with the famous Squadron cannon signalling each start sequence.

Where can I stay during Cowes Week?
Cowes fills up quickly during regatta week, so many visitors stay elsewhere on the island. Ryde is a characterful option: the Ryde Castle Hotel on the Esplanade is a Grade II listed, castle-style building dating from around 1840, with 18 rooms and sea views across the Solent.

Where should I eat in Ryde?
The Duck on Appley Rise sits on the seafront beside the canoe lake, with views across the Solent to Southsea, and is run by chef-owner Charlie Bartlett.

Is Cowes Week free to watch?
Watching from the shore is free. The Parade and Cowes Green offer fine views of the starts, and the shoreside festival of food, drink and music is open to all.

What does grinding mean in sailing?
Grinding means turning a winch handle at speed to haul in a sheet or hoist a sail. It is the engine room of any racing yacht, hard on the arms and, as our crew discovered, an inexhaustible source of innuendo.

See more here: Cowes Week