The feature event in all of British yacht racing, the Cowes Regatta is a week long spectacle, and a high point of the Royal Family’s summer social calender. The first week in August would see the royal yacht at anchorage with the Royal Yacht Squadron, established in Cowes since 1833. There would be races everyday, from the smallest racing class up to the largest Maxi ocean racers, an a culmination of awards and fireworks display on Friday evening.

Painted in 1906, this view of the Cowes waterfront is full of the elegance that yachting society abides by. Smartly dressed yachtsmen and the ladies walk the promenade between the Gloucester Hotel and the Royal Yacht Squadron on the point. Nice forested growth is in parallel harmony to the reaches of the yacht masts in the Solent, across from Southampton. Many launches, rowed and steam powered, make progress to and from the racing ships under the warm summer sky.

Cowes, divided by the Solent River on the Isle of Wight, came to prominence with the placement of forts by King Henry VIII in 1540. As the isle’s main port, it came to host the Royal Yacht Club in 1820, and then the Squadron. Of prominence, it is also the starting point of the important Fastnet Race.