Cowes Week is sailed on the Solent from Saturday 31 July to Friday 6 August 2027 — the week the Season leaves the lawns and goes offshore.
The first race off Cowes started at half past nine on the morning of Thursday 10 August 1826, for a gold cup worth £100, under the flag of the club that later became the Royal Yacht Squadron. A second race followed the next day for prize money alone. It has been sailed every August since, on the Solent, where two tides a day meet in a narrow channel and make the water harder to read than almost anywhere in Europe, and two centuries have made it the largest regatta of its kind anywhere.
Its character comes from who is allowed into it. Around 500 boats and 2,500 competitors sail up to forty races a day, and the fleet runs from Olympic and world champions to families racing a boat they keep on a mooring. Until the First World War the big cutters were raced by gentlemen amateurs who employed the crew, which is roughly the opposite arrangement to the one that gives the week its character now.
The 2027 regatta runs from Saturday 31 July to Friday 6 August at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. The town is the second half of the week: racing finishes in the afternoon and the Parade and the yacht clubs carry it into the evening. Cowes Week Limited runs the regatta, which is one of the longest-running of any kind still sailed.