A chat with Laurence Mead

Laurence Mead has steered Cowes Week since 2018, dealing with the onset of Covid, but the regatta director is stepping down at the end of this year’s event.

Cowes Week is one of the longest-running regular regattas in the world. With 40 daily sailing races, around 500 boats and 2,500 competitors, ranging from Olympic and world-class professionals to weekend sailors, it is the largest sailing regatta of its kind in the world.

Chatting in the Cowes Week offices, he said: “Over the years, it has taken up so much of my life – four months of working five or six days of the week; six weeks of seven days a week. In the winter I’m still working three days a week.

“The time is right to leave; we celebrate our 200th anniversary in three years’ time and it gives my successor a chance to settle in.”

There has been criticism that it has suffered recently with no fireworks or Red Arrows display, but he says: “The fireworks are great but very expensive and then there’s paying for the road closures and policing. It’s not feasible.

“Cowes Week is a British institution and it’s all about high-quality racing and we want to maintain that reputation. It is an amazing test of all-round sailing skills.

“The event is run by the combined yacht clubs in the town and the only times it has not run was during World War II and in 2020 during Covid. It takes a lot of planning with a lot of good people, including all our volunteers, and we are already looking ahead to next year.

“The sailing has changed since Covid. Beforehand, we had huge numbers of northern European boats attending, but now they make up just five per cent of the entrants. But we still have at least 180 yachts taking part on 32 different courses each day. It’s great yachting from the weekend warriors who visit for just three days and go home, along with the professionals.

“We are an event that is integrated into the town and we want to continue that for the next 200 years.”