By Mal Butler
HRH The Princess Royal helped launch Cowes Week’s 200th anniversary celebrations, joining sailors, organisers, and the local community for a packed programme of events across the opening weekend.
Her visit began on Friday, accompanied by her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, and welcomed by Lord-Lieutenant, Susie Sheldon. After greeting crowds on Cowes High Street, she toured the Cowes Week 200 Maritime Heritage trail, created by the Classic Boat Museum and the Royal Yacht Britannia Trust to mark the bicentenary and celebrate Cowes’ yachting history.
At Regatta House, the Princess Royal met staff and volunteers who run the regatta’s extensive race management and communications operation. She has long‑standing ties to Cowes Week, having spent time aboard HMY Britannia as a girl while her father, the Duke of Edinburgh, raced on the Solent, and later competing herself aboard UKSA’s Albatross II in 2014.
Saturday opened with a 21‑gun salute from the Royal Yacht Squadron before Her Royal Highness fired the cannon to start the day’s first race. She then headed out by motorboat to watch the Bicentenary racing at close quarters, joined by the Island’s Lord-Lieutenant and the RYS Commodore, Robert Bicket.
On Monday, she unveiled the new public realm at Albany Green, in East Cowes, visited East Cowes Sailing Club’s youth training facility, and viewed the newly-installed historic propeller monument. She concluded her visit aboard THV Patricia at a private Trinity House event.
Carole Dennett