Despite the late September date, Mother Nature and the Solent turned it on today with sun and solid breeze for the practice racing for the 2026 44Cup World Championship Cowes. But in addition to the practice, RC44 Class President Chris Bake had arranged for the event’s host club, the Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS), to join forces with RC44 teams to run the King’s Cup. For this VIP guests, including Duran Duran lead singer Simon le Bon and Sir Ben Ainslie, were invited to steer two races on the high performance one designs in order to raise money for 11 Isle of Wight-based charities associated with sailing.
Eventually after waiting for the northwest wind to settle down, racing took place in the northeast Solent off Hill Head. In the first race it was Nico Poons’ Charisma, with local Cowes ace Peter Morton at the helm, finished ahead of Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika (steered by Olivia Dowling) and Hugues Lepic/Pietro Loro Piana’s Aleph Racing (with Lucy Harrison helming). One of the Solent’s most successful and experienced sailors Morton’s sailing CV is giant, including a victory in the Admiral’s Cup at its height, two wins in the Rolex Fastnet Race and multiple in the Quarter Ton Cup – an event and class he successfully revived with his wife Louise (today helming Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing).
With the ebb tide and the underwater terrain of the central Solent making life tricky for the race management team under PRO Maria Torrijo, the second race took on a simpler form with a short upwind leg, then curbing around the Brambles Bank before heading to the RYS finish line via the Gurnard mark. In this event host Chris Bake and his Team Aqua (steered by RYS Commodore Robert Bicket) led the fleet home ahead of Aleph Racing and Team Nika.
In in the final tally Bicket and Bake’s Team Aqua won but only after a three-way tie with both Aleph Racing (winner of the 44Cup Cowes in 2021) and Team Nika had been broken in their favour.
“It was absolutely wonderful out there. This [winning] is of course the height of bad manners…but I don't really care!” quipped the beaming Commodore, at the prizegiving on the lawn on outside his club. Alongside Bicket was the magnificent ancient golden trophy, originally donated in 1826 to the RYS [then known as the ‘Royal Yacht Club’] by King George IV as the top prize for Cowes Week (then just three days long and called the Cowes Regatta). Bicket thanked Bake and Team Aqua as well as the VIP guests and the donors to their fund-raising effort. He reminisced about the last edition in August 2019 in which the inter-royals competition had seen Prince William beat his wife Kate, but only after she had been called OCS…by Bicket. “So feel we’ve done this for her...”
He added: “Today was fabulous – the Solent at its best. You had to be careful of the depth around the Brambles Bank. It was a great fleet of nine boats. It couldn't get any better.”
Chris Bake was also delighted by the result but also by the six figure sum raised for the charities: “It was really successful. Using the RC44s for this has been great. Bringing the communities together, as well as being able to help all the charities on the island feels really good.” This feeling was echoed by the other RC44 owners.
It was a great result for Lucy Harrison, who lives on the Isle of Wight and has been racing J/70s. Her better known father Peter has campaigned TP52s, Maxi 72s and most recently the J Class Rainbow, at the highest level and who was watching with pride from the motor yacht Rum Jungle (which was generously donated to the event as a VIP spectator craft for the King’s Cup by owner Hugh Agnew of A+T Instruments.)
“I really enjoyed it - it was really good fun,” commented Lucy Harrison. “They’re a great team and obviously it’s important having a great tactician beside you. I really enjoyed it.” Tactician Italian Michele Ivaldi previously raced with her father on his Maxi 72 Jolt.
Dame Ellen Macarthur, who created highline news and became a household name in the UK when she finished second in the 2001-2 Vendée Globe and then set a new singlehanded non-stop round the world record in 2005, was at the prize-giving. “Being on the water you get a feeling for just what that can do especially the young people at the Cancer Trust - it's often the greatest sense of freedom that they've felt for a long time and that really makes a profound difference.” She went on to thank the RYS, the RC44 teams and especially Chris Bake. “Chris has supported the Cancer Trust for the last ten years and is a huge fan of what we do. And we are really profoundly grateful, not only for your support, but also for this.”
Tomorrow it is back to business for the 44Cup with the first three races of the 2026 World Championship. At least half of the teams are capable of winning the regatta and all can win races.
The dark horse could be Christian Zuerrer’s Black Star Sailing Team which today sailed with former Stay Calm TP52/Swan owner Stuart Branson. Zuerrer has become a ‘Solent expert’ having spent the summer racing here. “The Solent is challenging with the sea breeze and the current, but it's good, it's cool, it's nice. It looks like a little bit light this week, but it's the same for everybody.”
Also looking to do well here is the Turkish Wow! Sailing Team. Their Spanish tactician Iker Martinez once upon a time trained here en route to his 49er Olympic medals and started and finished two Seven Star Round Britain Races here. All of the teams have brought in local knowledge and in their case they have Ian Moore in their chase boat.
Meanwhile owner Murat Edin was still on a cloud having spent the day with rock star Simon le Bon steering his boat. “Simon was really cool. He's a really good sailor. It took him a little bit of time to get adjusted to the boat, but once he did, it was cool.”
Edin is aiming for a race win this week – in which case he says he will shave his beard off.
And Simon le Bon’s day? “It was fantastic. The Wow! crew are amazing. They made it so easy for me as a complete novice helmsman on an RC44. The boat's incredibly responsive and it was exciting. The fleet sails so close together that they miss each other by inches. It's extraordinary.
“I'm a huge supporter of Ellen [MacArthur] and her endeavours. I'm very proud to be involved in this. I'm particularly in support of anything that gets kids on the water, as that’s what happened to me and it changed my life…”
Racing for the 44Cup World Championship Cowes starts todaywith a warning signal at 1200.
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