The Princess Royal was at Cowes for the opening weekend of the Bicentenary Regatta, 200 years after seven yachts gathered off the Isle of Wight for the first race in 1826. More than 630 boats have come to the Solent this year to mark the occasion.
Her Royal Highness visited Regatta House, the operational hub of North Sails Cowes Week, meeting the staff and volunteers who keep racing moving across more than 40 classes for thousands of competitors. She saw the event from the inside, taking in everything from race management to communications.
She also walked the Maritime Heritage Trail, a collaboration between the Classic Boat Museum and The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust that links sailing clubs, museums, and heritage venues across Cowes. At Commodores House, the Sailing Through Royal History exhibition covers Britannia's ties with the regatta, the Royal Family's love of sailing, and their connections with legendary Cowes yacht designer Uffa Fox.
Central to that exhibition is Coweslip, the Flying Fifteen presented to the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1949 as a belated wedding gift from the people of Cowes, now restored and returned to the town where she was built and launched.
For The Princess Royal, this history is personal. 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, racing aboard UKSA's Farr 65 Albatross II in 2014 and helming the yacht across the finish line ahead of sistership Whirlwind II, aboard which her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, was racing.
Today she is Admiral of the Royal Yacht Squadron, Patron of the Island Sailing Club, and Patron of UKSA. Bruce Huber, Chairman Elect of Cowes Week Limited, said: "It was a great privilege to welcome The Princess Royal back to Cowes Week in our 200th year. Her Royal Highness has known the regatta from many perspectives, from spending time aboard Britannia as a girl while her father raced, to competing here herself, and through her longstanding involvement with so many of the organisations at the heart of sailing in Cowes. To welcome her behind the scenes at Regatta House and share some of the history we are celebrating this year was a very special way to begin our Bicentenary Regatta."
