Cowes Week is one of the longest-running regular regattas in the world. With 40 daily sailing races, around 500 boats, and 2500 competitors ranging from Olympic and world-class professionals to weekend sailors, it is the largest sailing regatta of its kind in the world. Having started in 1826, the event is held in August each year on the Solent, and is run by Cowes Week Limited in the small town of Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
World Sailing (WS) is the international sports governing body for sailing; it is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
Sir Russell Coutts is a world champion New Zealand yachtsman. He won an Olympic gold medal and skippered three Americas Cup victories in 1995, 2000, and 2003.
Robert Adam Mosbacher Sr. was an American businessman, accomplished yacht racer, and a Republican politician. A longtime friend and political ally of George H. W. Bush, Mosbacher served in Bush's Cabinet as Secretary of Commerce from 1989 to 1992.
Ronald John Holland is a yacht designer, who came to prominence in the 1970s with his successful racing designs, and is now best known for his superyachts such as Mirabella V and Ethereal. He is now based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Paul Pierre Cayard is an American yachtsman and professional sailor. He has competed at multiple world championship level sailing events, including the America's Cup, the Whitbread Round the World Race, the Volvo Ocean Race and the Olympic Games. In 1998 he was selected as the US Rolex Yachtsmen of the Year. He has won seven world championships, twice participated in the Olympic Games and seven times in the America's Cup. In 2011 he was elected into the US Sailing Hall of Fame.
Christopher Stuart Dickson is a sailor from New Zealand. He was world youth champion three years in succession and later became world match race champion three times. He also skippered several yachts in America's Cup racing, and for New Zealand at the 2000 Summer Olympics, and in numerous other sailing competitions.
Chris Law was a British sailor who was a winner of the Finn Gold Cup in 1976. His talent was sometimes overshadowed by his bad luck and volatile temperament. He died by suicide at Lake Constance in 2007.
Don Cowie, born 5 January 1962 in Palmerston North, New Zealand, is a former competitive sailor who won a silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Cowie teamed with ex-American Rod Davis in the Star class to finish second to the American crew.
Roderick Hopkins Davis is a former competitive sailor who won Olympic medals for two countries. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, representing the United States, he won the gold medal in the Soling class along with Robert Haines and Edward Trevelyan. After moving to New Zealand he was chosen to represent that country at the next three Olympic Games. Along with Don Cowie he won a silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain in the Star class.
Ian James Walker is one of Britain's most successful sailors, with two Olympic silver medals to his name. He is a member of Northampton Sailing Club and Warsash Sailing Club.
Kenneth Read is an American yachtsman who is considered one of the world's most accomplished and celebrated sailors. He was named United States Rolex Yachtsman of the Year twice, and has won more than 50 world, North American, and national championships in a variety of classes, with eleven of those being World Championships titles in the J/24, Etchells 22 and yacht classes.
Peter Burling is a New Zealand sailor. He is the 3-time winning helmsman for Emirates Team New Zealand for the 2024, 2021 and 2017 America's cups..
John Somers Payne was an Irish sport sailor, doyen of Cork Harbour Sailing and double Olympian. Payne competed as a member of the Irish National sailing teams in November 1956 and again at the August 1960 Olympics, earning himself the title of a double Olympian. In the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia Payne competed in the Men's Finn single-handed dinghy category and placed 16th. Four years later at the Olympic Games held off the coast of Naples, Italy, he competed in the same category and placed 18th, in what was his final sailing competition. John Somers Payne, also simply known as 'Somers' was often described by family and friends as an ‘inspiration’, as he was one of the first individuals from the coastal Cork village of Crosshaven to sail into the olympics.
John Waldrip Kolius is an American sailor. He won a silver medal in the Soling class with Walter Glasgow and Richard Hoepfner at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. In 1987 and 2000 he competed at the Louis Vuitton Cup. Kolius began sailing at the age of 5 when his father introduced the family to sailing as a way to spend time together. John's first boat was a Sunfish and he grew up sailing at the Houston Yacht Club through the Ragnot program. In 1968, John won his first major championship, the US Sailing Triplehanded Championship for the Sears Cup. He was 17 years old. Two years later at the age of 19, Kolius won the US Sailing Senior Championship for the Mallory Trophy. It was not too long after that he began sailing Solings and preparing for the Olympics. In 1975, John won the Soling North Americans and in 1976 an Olympic silver medal. In 2023, he was inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame
David Noel Robins, OAM was an Australian sailor. He began sailing as a child, and became partially quadriplegic after receiving a spinal fracture from a car crash at the age of 21. He was the skipper of Australia in the 1977 America's Cup, won the 1981 Admiral's Cup, and won a gold medal in sailing at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. He died on 22 May 2003, four weeks after being struck by a car.
Francesco "Checco" Bruni is a professional sailor from Italy, together with James Spithill, helmsman of Luna Rossa during the America's Cup 2021.
Terry Hutchinson is an American sailor eleven-time world champion in the Corel 45, J/24, TP 52, Farr 40 and IMS classes, and a winning tactician of the Louis Vuitton Cup. In 2008 and 2014, he was named Rolex Yachtsman of the Year. He has also been part of five America's Cup campaigns.
Gavin Brady is a New Zealand sailor who has competed in the Summer Olympics and multiple America's Cups.
Joe English was an Irish yachtsman, professional sailor and sailmaker. He competed at multiple world championship-level sailing events, including America's Cup, the Whitbread Round The World Race and Admiral's Cup race series. In 1989, English skippered Ireland's first entry to take part in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race.
