Three days to wait after 199 (and a half) years
by Cowes Week Ltd 11 Feb 03:56 NZDT
1-7 August 2026
Cowes Week 200 Bicentenary Regatta © Cowes Combined Clubs
After one hundred and ninety-nine (and a half!) years there's just three more days to wait until entries open for the 200th Cowes Week annual regatta.
We'd be willing to bet that there weren't any sailors racing in 1826 who would've dreamed that 200 years later the regatta would be the biggest and most famous Corinthian regatta in the world. But, while the boats have changed, the ethos remains the same. Passionate sailors coming together in the first week of August, in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, to race boats against each other, to meet friends old and new and to enjoy a fabulous week of parties.
Super early-bird entries will open at 00:01 on Friday 13th February and run for three weeks until Friday 6th March. The Notice of Race will be online and call for entries from 37 different classes, ranging from the evergreen Flying 15 dinghy right up to the TP52s in Class Zero. The only major change in the NOR is the move from the ISC Rating System for Performance Cruiser and Club Cruiser divisions to the RYA endorsed and RORC run YTC rating system. YTC is a free rating system that's becoming increasingly popular with the cruiser racer community, and the Cowes Week Sailing Committee felt now was the right time to move to YTC. For more information and to get a YTC rating go here after February 16th.
Cowes Week has always been about an eclectic mix of boats, and the regatta committee is delighted that the classic classes of the Solent such as the XOD and Solent Sunbeam remain regular attendees, along with newer classes such as the Weekend Warriors, racing stock production boats under the YTC handicap system. It really is a regatta for everyone. If you can't find a class in which to enter your particular boat, please let us know on . If we can find a few like-minded sailors with similar boats, we will certainly put a class together for you.
Everyone at Cowes Week is mindful of the cost of racing boats, and we've worked hard to prevent fees from rising, keeping entry prices at the same level as 2025 and ensuring the Bicentenary Regatta remains accessible to as many sailors as possible. Almost everybody who works at the regatta is a volunteer, and it takes 200 of them from nine different yacht clubs to make the event happen. It's Corinthian on the water and can only happen thanks to those hard-working volunteers.
We are expecting a bumper entry for the 200th anniversary regatta. Entry numbers have been up over the last couple of years, and we've already had a lot of enthusiastic calls to the office from people wanting to enter for 2026. We've also received our first entry - on a list that we're predicting will be over 600 long come August - from Royal Yacht Squadron Commodore Robert Bicket;
"I dropped my deposit cheque in before Christmas! Entries weren't open at the time but I wanted to be first and to support the team as they prepare for the 200th anniversary regatta. I can't wait for Cowes Week to come round in August - it's one of my favourite regattas of the year. I love racing on the Solent and Cowes Week really is very special. All 200 of them! Amazing!"
Race Day 1 is Saturday August 1st 2026, and we're planning for the first start off the RYS line to be the J70 class at 10.30am. Prizegiving is on Friday August 7th.
The Bicentenary Regatta. Literally, history in the making. Be there!
To keep up with everything planned for the Bicentenary Regatta, we'd encourage competitors, spectators and fans of the regatta to subscribe to the Cowes Week monthly newsletter.
Alongside on-the-water updates, the newsletter will also share what's planned shoreside for the Bicentenary year, plus our Recollections of Cowes series - short personal reflections on what Cowes Week means to sailors across the sport. Recent issues have featured Ian Walker, our new PRO Philip Warwick, Shirley Robertson and photographer Paul Wyeth, with many more voices to come as we count down to August.