Royal Yacht Squadron Set to Host Bicentenary Regatta

The Club was founded in 1815, and will mark its 200 year anniversary with a myraid of celebrations set to take place throughout the year in the United Kingdom and overseas.

The focus of the celebrations will be the International Bicentennial Regatta - an invitation-only regatta scheduled to be held between 25th and 31st July 2015 at its historic home in Cowes. Held two weeks before the annual Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week regatta, the racing will take place on the Solent and around the Isle of Wight with the Club opening its doors to participants from around the globe.

The Royal Yacht Squadron has invited 25 clubs from 19 countries around the world to send crews to the event with the opportunity to take part in a one design regatta with yachts provided by the Organising Authority or participating in IRC racing. In addition, two crews of four under the age of 30 from up to 10 of the invited clubs will participate in a J80 team racing competition.

An extremely high level of interest has already been shown in the event. Several J-Class yachts have shown an interest in taking part in the Bicentenary Regatta, and Nautor’s Swan will be adding the Transatlantic Race to their 2015 ClubSwan calendar. They also have provisional plans to have a Swan class in the regatta.

Rear Commodore Yachting's David Aisher comments, "We will run a regatta that brings together as many clubs and friends who share our common interests and love of sailing as is possible... We hope that they will leave at the end of the event with many happy memories and will have helped forge stronger ties between our clubs as a direct consequence of their participation..."

The regatta celebrations will follow on from the Transatlantic Race which in 2015 is being run by the New York Yacht Club, the Royal Yacht Squadron, the Royal Ocean Racing Club and the Storm Trysail Club. This careful timing is designed to allow yachts enough time to get from Newport RI to Cowes for the Bicentennial Regatta Week.

Full details on the regatta will be issued in the Notice of Race which will be published next year.

Get in touch with your yacht charter broker for more details or to discuss booking a regatta yacht charter.

This promises to be a very special occasion, so we urge those invited clubs to get in touch as soon as possible for further information, since space will unfortunately be limited - David Aisher