The 199th Cowes Week lost a day of racing to Storm Floris in 2025 and ended with more than 400 boats running downwind under spinnakers.
The 199th Cowes Week was sailed on the Solent from Saturday 2 to Friday 8 August 2025, with racing off Cowes on every day but one.
Cowes Week began in 1826, and Cowes Week Limited now runs it. The Solent’s double tides make the water tricky, and the fleet ranges from Olympic and world-class professionals to weekend sailors. Boats race in two groups, the White Group of day-boats and the Black Group of larger keelboats.
The first Sunday brought a big breeze, and Storm Floris then cancelled all racing on the Monday. Sunshine and lighter winds followed mid-week. The regatta took 450 entries, up 9 per cent on 2024, and more than 400 boats finished the last race off the Royal Yacht Squadron line under multicoloured spinnakers.
The overall winner was the XOD Astralita, helmed by John Tremlett with Fraser Graham and Tim Copsey, with five wins and a second in a fleet of 38. The Quarter Tonner BLT, owned by Sam Laidlaw, took the Black Group. In IRC Zero the TP52 Braveheart edged the Dutch Admiral’s Cupper Van Uden - Rost 3 after a tense week. Flying Jenny won the Cape 31 mini-series and the Britannia Cup, while Bullit took the class title by winning the last race by one second. The Sunbeam class was decided in the last 200 metres of its final race.