HRH The Princess Royal fired the Royal Yacht Squadron's historic cannon to send the first fleet racing at North Sails Cowes Week, as the regatta marked 200 years of sailing on the Solent.
The morning opened with a 21-gun salute from the Squadron platform before The Princess Royal took her place at the starting battery. Two hundred years after seven yachts contested the inaugural race off Cowes in 1826, the same cannon that has marked generations of Cowes Weeks sent another fleet out onto the water.
After firing the gun, she headed out by motorboat to watch the Bicentenary racing at close quarters, accompanied by Bertie Bicket, Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron, the Lord-Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight, the Chair of Experience Cowes, and their respective spouses. More than 630 boats are taking part in this year's regatta.
The day carried a distinctly personal significance for The Princess Royal. As a girl, she spent time aboard HMY Britannia during Cowes Week while her father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, raced on the Solent. She later became a competitor herself, and in 2014 raced aboard UKSA's Farr 65 Albatross II, helming the yacht across the finish line ahead of sistership Whirlwind II, aboard which her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, was racing.
She is Admiral of the Royal Yacht Squadron, Patron of the Island Sailing Club, and Patron of UKSA, and has been a regular visitor to Cowes over many years.
Bruce Huber, Chairman Elect of Cowes Week Limited, said: "There could hardly have been a more fitting way to mark 200 years of Cowes Week than to see The Princess Royal fire the Royal Yacht Squadron cannon and send another generation of sailors out onto the Solent. Her Royal Highness has a very personal connection with Cowes Week, from watching her father race here as a girl to competing herself, and today she was able to see the Bicentenary racing at close quarters. Following the 21-gun salute, it made for an incredibly special morning and a memorable moment in the history of the regatta."
Royal involvement at Cowes stretches almost to the very beginning. The inaugural race was held on 10 August 1826, when seven yachts raced under the flag of the Royal Yacht Club for a Gold Cup. Just a year later, King George IV presented the King's Cup, beginning an association between the Crown and Cowes racing that has endured across two centuries.
From seven yachts in 1826 to a fleet of more than 630 boats, the scale of the regatta has changed beyond recognition. The cannon, though, sounds just as it always has.
