The Metre & Classic Keelboat Regatta

Source: Email from David Elliott http://www.classickeelboats.org

To the members of the Swedish Square Metre Association.

You may be aware that this year there is to be a new Regatta for Metre boats and Classic keelboats at Cowes at the same time as the British Classic Yacht Club Regatta forming the genesis of a Cowes Classics Week. I have attached a copy of the original announcement and comment with some updated information below.

I appreciate that this year you have your Centenary Regatta in Sweden and it may not be possible for any of your boats to come, but I thought I should keep you in touch as it is intended that this will be an annual event and form a link in a Northern European Classics Circuit – so maybe for another year. Would you please be so kind as to circulate this to your members. Many thanks.

Plans for the regatta are moving on apace and shaping up well. Key points are:

  • The racing – it is intended to run 2 or 3 races a day on laid courses – probably mostly windward leeward (quite different from Cowes Week or BCYC and much more appropriate for these boats, although we'll try to mix it up a bit as well with at least one long race). We have got to the stage where we think we need 3 committee boats – 2 to start and one to finish and each race will probably have its own windward mark so that it can be laid according the conditions at each start and at an appropriate distance. That should make for some good racing. The metre boats will sail in classes and the keel dayboats either as a class fleet if there are enough or in an IRC-rated mixed fleet (or two - a fast and a slow fleet if there are enough).
  • We have formed a co-ordinating group with BCYC and the clubs and we will share some events – for instance the 8mR and 12mR may do the long Nab Tower race with BCYC.
  • Three of the big boats have confirmed so far – Lulworth, Mariquita and Mariette – and we can now get them in the river, so it's going to be fairly spectacular.
  • It is the centenary of the 2008 Olympics at which the sailing event was held at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club (RVYC), then in Ryde, near to Cowes. We are in the early stages of organizing a celebration with the RVYC and Royal Yachting Association (RYA) to
    1. race on one day, probably Thursday, and we are thinking of inviting some celebrities and maybe the youth squad to sail with us (the Olympic sailors will be in China already by then)
    2. an exhibition at the Classic Boat Museum and
    3. have a big combined celebratory reception.
  • We have also linked with the Pendennis Cup for classic superyachts, a new part of the Falmouth Regatta and will organize a feeder race.
  • There will be organized socials every night.
  • The Notice of Regatta is currently being finalized. Once that's ready, there'll be an on-line entry system, an on-line IRC application system and on-line booking for the socials – if people register on http://www.classickeelboats.org, they will be notified when it's all up and running and get all the announcements
  • There is a lot of press interest - about a dozen photographers have expressed interest so far and we'll organize a press centre and press boats.
  • In addition to the Metre boats, classes currently likely to come are: IODs, 30sq.m., Darings, Dragons, Victorys, Sunbeams and possibly the Bembridge Redwings, Swallows, XODs etc. And there'll be a sprinkling of others – for instance we may get a Royal Yorkshire and a Royal Burnham who are interested to sail in the Solent.

So, it's really looking good and hope that maybe one or two boats might be able to come to evaluate the event.

Meanwhile, best regards, David

David J. Elliott British Classic Yacht Club, Sec. for Racing Classes British 6 Metre Class Association, Web & Communications

http://www.classickeelboats.org
http://www.britishclassicyachtclub.org
http://www.themetreregatta.org
http://www.6mr.org.uk