Getting ready to race!

The summer sailing season is well underway and Cowes is certainly living up to it’s reputation as the yachting capital of the world!

At Spencer Rigging, we’re thrilled to have so many international regattas, inshore and offshore races and events coming to town and support sailors with their rigging projects. From the loft in St Mary’s Road, a stones throw from the marinas at Cowes Yacht Haven and Shepherds Wharf, the team have been busy working on local boats and those visiting to get them race ready to enjoy trouble-free sailing, round the cans and heading offshore.

In May, Cowes Spring Classics Regatta kicked off a busy season for the Six Metre class, with a full calendar of events culminating in the World Championships which will be held in Cowes and hosted by the Royal Yacht Squadron from Thursday 31 August to Friday 8 September. Together with our colleagues at Advanced Rigging & Hydraulics in Hamble, we carried out remedial works on the hydraulic system on Scoundrel in preparation for the first regatta – with the skipper reporting “they worked like a dream!”

By the middle of May it was great to see several yachts rigged by Spencer Rigging in decades past looking magnificent as part of the Richard Mille Cup. A new regatta for 2023, the Cup combined inshore regattas with offshore courses between 65 and 100 nautical miles long, on both English and French sides of the Channel, starting in Falmouth before heading to Cowes, then onto Le Havre. With all of the vessels built or designed before 1940, the Richard Mille Cup recreated the spectacle, sporting values and elegance of the regatta circuits of the pre-war years and it was a pleasure to see the white sails of the Schooners and Cutters peppering the skyline.

Looking into July, Round The Island Race is always a busy time for the Spencer Rigging team as one of the largest yachting events held anywhere in the world fills the local marinas. 1100 entries join the fray on 1 July 2023 with some 10,000 sailors onboard and there’s a blustery forecast for race day particularly on the south side of the Isle of Wight. Any boat, from cruiser to maxi yacht can and do enter the Round the Island Race, and it looks like the bigger boats will enjoy an awesome downwind ride from the Needles to Bembridge.

There’s a new date for the historic Rolex Fastnet Race in 2023 which has moved position in the racing calendar to before Cowes Week, setting off from Cowes on Saturday 22 July. For the 50th Edition, there’s a huge double-handed participation in the offshore classic, and we will be helping many teams get race ready before they take on the 695nm course. So far, it has been an exciting season of supporting RORC events and qualifiers, leading many teams to make tweaks and changes to their sail set up before the big push offshore.

Cowes Week this year takes place from 29 July to 4 August. Together with our co-workers at Advanced Rigging & Hydraulics and partners Kingfisher Ropes, you’ll find us in Cowes Yacht Haven all week, as well as at the loft in St. Mary’s Road.

If you’re looking to refresh your racing set up with a rig-tune, new running rigging, or hydraulics service, don’t leave it too late to get in touch – contact the team and we’ll be glad to help you get prepared for great sailing!