Town in Isle of Wight, England
Cowes
A small Isle of Wight harbour town gave the world the America's Cup, hosted a Kaiser's rivalry with a tea tycoon, and sent a hovercraft across the Channel.
Key information
- County
- Isle of Wight
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 10,400 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- Cowes Week, the Royal Yacht Squadron, yacht racing and boatbuilding
- What locals are called
- Cowesians
- Famous people
- Uffa Fox, Thomas Arnold
- Football clubs
- Cowes Sports
About Cowes
The race that created the America's Cup
On 22 August 1851, a lean American schooner called America lined up off Cowes for a race round the Isle of Wight. The prize was a silver ewer from the Royal Yacht Squadron, known as the Hundred Guinea Cup. America won, and the trophy sailed home across the Atlantic. The cup was later renamed after the boat that won it. It became the America's Cup, the most famous prize in yacht racing, and it began in the waters off this small harbour town. The Royal Yacht Squadron, which set the race, still sits in Cowes Castle on the seafront. The castle was built under Henry VIII in 1539 as part of his coastal defences, and the club has used it as its home since 1858.
Cowes Week: a regatta since 1826
Cowes Week is one of the longest-running sailing regattas in the world. It first took place in 1826 and now fills the Solent each August with hundreds of boats, from serious racing yachts to smaller keelboats and dayboats. It grew into a fixture of the summer social season. Queen Victoria loved the island and based herself at Osborne House, just across the river in East Cowes. Royalty followed, and so did the rich and fashionable. The event also had its rivalries. Kaiser Wilhelm II turned up to race, and the tea magnate Sir Thomas Lipton, who made several attempts at the America's Cup, was a regular in the yachting world of the day. King George V raced his yacht Britannia in the Solent. The week traditionally ended with a fireworks display over the water, though it was cancelled in 2022 and 2023 because of funding difficulties.
Why there are two Cowes
Cowes is split by the River Medina into Cowes and East Cowes. The name goes back to two forts that Henry VIII built on either side of the river mouth, Westcowe and Estcowe. The two towns are joined by the Cowes Floating Bridge, a chain ferry that pulls itself across the river on chains laid on the riverbed. It has been a local institution for generations, and islanders have strong opinions about it. On the west bank, the High Street runs roughly parallel to the waterfront, while side streets such as Sun Hill and Market Hill climb steeply inland. The town is narrow and crowded with chandlers, sailmakers and sea-view pubs. Everyone arriving by sea passes through the town, and the Red Funnel ferry from Southampton brings many visitors in.
From flying boats to the first hovercraft
Cowes was a place that built things as well as raced them. J. Samuel White's yard turned out warships and lifeboats, and Saunders-Roe built giant flying boats on the Medina. In 1959 the same industry produced the SR.N1, the first practical hovercraft, based on an idea from the inventor Christopher Cockerell. On 25 July that year it crossed the English Channel from Calais to Dover. It was exactly 50 years after Louis Blériot's first flight across the same stretch of water. Uffa Fox, born in Cowes in 1898, was another local innovator. He was a boat designer whose Flying Fifteen two-person keelboat is still raced today. During the Second World War he designed an airborne lifeboat that could be dropped by aircraft to rescue airmen from the sea.
Around the island and out to the Fastnet
The Round the Island Race starts at Cowes and has run since 1931. It sends a huge fleet of boats on a lap of the Isle of Wight, and it is one of the biggest mass-participation yacht races anywhere. The Fastnet Race, the famous offshore challenge to the Fastnet Rock off southern Ireland, also starts from Cowes. It is run every two years. Ashore, the town has its own football club in Cowes Sports. Most local sporting life, though, happens on the water. Cowes is home to sailmakers, boatbuilders and sailing teams, and plenty of people who live there spend their working lives around boats. One famous Cowes name is Thomas Arnold, born here in 1795. He went on to become headmaster of Rugby School and a reformer of English public school education.