Cowes
June 27, 2022
27 Jun '22. HM 197. Cowes - a strange name explained...
Cowes eats, drinks, breathes and even smells of racing yachts and we were here to take part in the world's largest yacht race - Round The Island Race. Organised by the super friendly Island Sailing Club, they kindly allowed Good Dog to compete - a Land Rover entering a Formula One competition! We had a lot of fun and their club house served Seafarers Bitter - a long term supporter of The Seafarers' Charity I raise money for. Thank you @helenlashmar.
From the moment I contacted the Harbour Master, Ed Walker, he and his great team bent over backwards to help me, giving Good Dog a mooring close to the race start line. Ed had an interesting career in the Merchant Navy ending up as Master of a giant Svitzer tug pushing oil tankers around in Milford Haven. Svitzer, a Danish company, owns 440 tugs operating around the world and I have seen them around the entire coast of GB.
Luckily Ed enjoys sailing and together with the eight sailing clubs in Cowes, helps organise a huge number of races - yacht, dingy, classic boats and power boats. The Royal Yacht Squadron occupies a wonderful castle built by Henry VIII in 1539 and it is from here that many races are set off using their highly polished brass cannons. We were lucky enough to spend a night in their very comfortable "haven" to do a crew change - thank you @paul_g_butterworth for organising that.
Busy Cowes is not just about yachts - an incredible 3 million passengers pass through the harbour on the famous Red Funnel ferries and huge wind turbine blades are manufactured on the River Medina. But why is Cowes called Cowes? Apparently on each side of the estuary there were two sandbanks each shaped like a cow and the village names Estcowe and Westcowe were established in the 14C. Now you know.... if anyone reads down this far!!
Thank you Ed and Gary Hall, chair of Commissioners.
Cowes eats, drinks, breathes and even smells of racing yachts and we were here to take part in the world's largest yacht race - Round The Island Race. Organised by the super friendly Island Sailing Club, they kindly allowed Good Dog to compete - a Land Rover entering a Formula One competition! We had a lot of fun and their club house served Seafarers Bitter - a long term supporter of The Seafarers' Charity I raise money for. Thank you @helenlashmar.
From the moment I contacted the Harbour Master, Ed Walker, he and his great team bent over backwards to help me, giving Good Dog a mooring close to the race start line. Ed had an interesting career in the Merchant Navy ending up as Master of a giant Svitzer tug pushing oil tankers around in Milford Haven. Svitzer, a Danish company, owns 440 tugs operating around the world and I have seen them around the entire coast of GB.
Luckily Ed enjoys sailing and together with the eight sailing clubs in Cowes, helps organise a huge number of races - yacht, dingy, classic boats and power boats. The Royal Yacht Squadron occupies a wonderful castle built by Henry VIII in 1539 and it is from here that many races are set off using their highly polished brass cannons. We were lucky enough to spend a night in their very comfortable "haven" to do a crew change - thank you @paul_g_butterworth for organising that.
Busy Cowes is not just about yachts - an incredible 3 million passengers pass through the harbour on the famous Red Funnel ferries and huge wind turbine blades are manufactured on the River Medina. But why is Cowes called Cowes? Apparently on each side of the estuary there were two sandbanks each shaped like a cow and the village names Estcowe and Westcowe were established in the 14C. Now you know.... if anyone reads down this far!!
Thank you Ed and Gary Hall, chair of Commissioners.