royal yacht squadron ball 2023

Six Metre 2023 World Championship set for RYS, Cowes

Royal Yacht Squadron prepares to host International Six Metre 2023 World Championship.

Preparations are in full swing to welcome 34 teams representing 11 Nations from across Europe and North America for the International Six Metre World Championship, to be hosted by the Royal Yacht Squadron from 29 August to 8 September.

The fleet is divided into two divisions, the Open Division and the Classic Division for those yachts built prior to 31 December 1965.

Boats have been arriving in Cowes over recent weeks to train on the Solent, and registration for the regatta begin on Tuesday 29 August.

The official practice races will be held from on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 September and then on Sunday 3 September the class will hold its AGM and a Race Officer’s briefing.

World Championship racing will commence on Monday 4 September with up to eight races scheduled between then and the regatta’s conclusion on Friday 8 September.

Amongst those competing will be the defending Open and Classic Division Champions, Momo and Dix Août.

In the Open Division Dieter Schoen’s Momo, a Judel/Vrolijk design launched in 2022, will be aiming for a second consecutive win.

But she will have tough competition from the likes of Jan Eckert’s Gingko Too, a 2020 Javier Cela design; Violeta Alvarez’ 2017 Juan Kouyoumdjian designed Stella; and new kid on the block Oiva, designed by Allan Savolainen, launched in 2022 and owned by Finland’s Henrik Andersin.

The Open Division may be nicknamed the “Moderns”, but even here the boats will span some forty years. Built in 1981 the Petterson/Howlett designed Junior may be the oldest boat in the Open Division but she’s arguably the most successful post-1965 boat having won the Worlds in 1999, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2017 and 2019 and the Europeans in 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2002.

In the classic division Dix Août, a 1950 Bjarne Aas design owned by Louis Heckly, will defend her title, but this time with the legendary French offshore and Dragon sailor Géry Trenteseaux at the helm.

Meanwhile Louis, who is also the President of the International Six Metre Class, will be racing the stunningly beautiful 1937 Olin Stephens designed Fun. The two boats have been training hard all season and will both be hoping to put in a good showing.

The oldest boat racing in the Classic Division will be the 1927 Johan Anker designed Sioma owned by Fenton Burgin, closely followed by Tom Owen and Dirk Stolp’s 1930 Alfred Mylne designed Valdai and Simon J. William’s 1931 Anker & Jensen designed Abu.

The youngest Classic racing will be Thomas Kuhmann’s 1955 Hanko III designed by Bjarne Aas, although Nirvana, which is a reconstruction of a 1939 Olin Stephens design, is technically the most recently built of the Classics at this event.

6 Metre Open Sail No Skipper/Owner Year Aera GRE1 Nick & Foti Lykiardopulo 1989 Battlecry GBR89 Jeremy Thorp 1988 Bravade GBR116 Bob Gatehouse 1988 Delphina SWE125 Hol J Michael Larsson 1989 Duclop SUI100 Reigh North/Rainer Muller 1981 Georgia GBR99 Tom Richardson 1990 GinkgoToo SUI140 Jan Eckert 2020 Jane Ann USA105 Basil Vasilliou 1985 Junior SUI77 Philippe Durr/Rainer Muller 1981 Lyonesse GBR90 Robert Leigh-Wood 1988 May Be XIV ESP70 Eugenio Galdon Brugarolas 1987 Momo SUI142 Dieter Schöen 2021 Oiva FIN81 Henrik Andersin 2022 Scoundrel USA126 Jamie Hilton 1989 Sophie II SUI132 Hugo Stenbeck 1991 St Kitts GBR88 Robin Richardson 1987 Stella GBR112 Violeta Alvarez 2017 Tempest USA125 Erin Parker 1987

6 Metre Classics Sail No Skipper/Owner Year Abu GBR32 Klaus Diederichs/Simon J. Williams 1931 Bribon ESP16 Real Club Nautico de Sanxenxo 1947 Dix Aout FRA111 Géry Trenteseaux 1950 Elghi II GBR74 Esben Poulsson 1952 Fun FRA11 Louis Heckly 1937 Hanko III GER96 Thomas Kuhmann 1955 Llanoria SUI83 Peter Hofmann/Rainer Muller 1948 May Be VI FIN51 Patrick Sandman 1946 Midinette SUI24 Bertrand Keller 1933 Nancy GBR28 Andy and Jan Short 1932 Nirvana GBR33 Andy and Lisa Postle 1939/2011 Saskia II SUI19 Pierre Guex/Rainer Muller 1934 Silvervingen GBR31 Simon J. Williams 1939 Sioma GBR17 Fenton Burgin 1927 Titia ESP72 Mauricio Sanchez-Bella 1952 Valdai GBR40 Tom Owen & Dirk Stolp 1930

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Yachting World

• Digital Edition

Inside the Royal Yacht Squadron – we get a rare view of this most exclusive club

• Belinda Bird
• May 18, 2015

Sarah Norbury jumps at a rare chance to see inside the Royal Yacht Squadron, that unique and intriguing yacht club at the centre of Cowes, in its 200th anniversary year

Photo: Paul Wyeth

Inside the Castle

The interior of the Castle is a cross between a grand country house and a maritime museum. I wish I could have stayed for days to study the paintings of Fleet Reviews throughout history, pore over the leather-bound tomes in the library and sit with a gin and tonic taking in the glorious views across the Solent.

Instead I caught glimpses of treasures and trophies taken down from the walls for the refurbishment and got a feel for the magnificent proportions of the ancient rooms, the splendour of the Platform, with its battery of brass cannon, imagining the Scottish reels danced there a few days before – this vast room hosts parties and dinners for up to 120.

The magnificemt Dining Room where members can host their own dinner parties

In pride of place is the enormous wheel from the yacht Victoria and Albert II , and over an arched doorway I spied the tiller from the royal racing yacht Bloodhound whose mast was once the Castle’s flagstaff – it was taken down for checking in 2014 and found to be past economic repair.

Members and their guests staying in the Castle in one of the 13 bedrooms, charmingly decorated in traditional style with chintz curtains and antique furniture, are treated to service every bit as good as in a five-star hotel. The commodore’s room is on the top floor. Both he and the vice-commodore have their own accommodation with ensuites.

The staff of stewards, waiters and waitresses is being augmented for the summer of 2015. They expect to be fully stretched serving drinks receptions and members’ dinners.

“And we’ll still provide normal service for members who like to come in to sit in the Morning Room or on the balcony in need of a whisky or a Martini and lemonade,” house manager Katie Waite told me. The Morning Room is Waite’s favourite part of the Castle. “It’s the most beautiful of them all,” she said.

Bells to summon the staff

Stewards, dressed in three-piece suits, offer a butler service and are at members’ beck and call 24 hours a day. Their ethos is to be “attentive, but not intrusive,” one steward told me.

One benefit of membership is the ability to book a room for a dinner, a party or wedding, entertaining your guests to superb food and drink. You can even book the entire Castle, effectively having your own country home for a day or two. If more than one member wants a room on the same date the complex hierarchy of membership comes into play and it goes to the senior member.

In the cavernous, old-fashioned basement kitchen, reminding me of a scene from Upstairs Downstairs , scores of jars of freshly made marmalade were cooling.

“All the food is made here fresh, from scratch, by the chefs,” the steward told me, “from bread, to jams and chutneys. We serve locally sourced meat and a lot of game in season.” They still do silver service if members request it, but most dishes are now in the new style, plated up artistically.

Wine cellar

Crouching slightly, we made our way into the wine cellars. In the first room for ‘high volume wines’, I noticed cases and cases of Sauternes ordered in for the bicentenary. The wines are chosen by the Squadron’s Wine Committee, some ready to drink, others bought en primeur to be kept until ready for drinking. The all-important port cellar is further down, in the deepest, coldest part of the building. Back up in the pantry, staff were polishing silver cutlery, which will no doubt be a Sisyphean task during the summer.

The Squadron boasts an excellent wine cellar

Is the club concerned that its traditional image may not appeal to potential younger members? I asked the commodore. He replied that the Squadron runs a racing programme every April for youngsters aged between 16 and 20 in J/109s and there’s a busy J/70 team-racing schedule for around 80 Squadron Sailing Associates up to the age of 35.

Commodore Sharples is himself a keen sailor. “I started sailing on a SCOD with my father, and then on an Excalibur 36,” he told me. “We did plenty of RORC racing and Cowes Week every year.” Aged 24, he took a sabbatical and set sail as skipper with three friends and his brother for Cape Town in a Gallant 53 in order to do the 1973 Cape to Rio Race. Since then he’s competed in more than 40 Cowes Weeks, Fastnets, Newport-Bermudas and Swan Worlds.

He said it was “a great privilege” to be commodore in the Squadron’s bicentenary year: “We have been planning for nearly two years so we are hopeful our events will be well-run and a great success, and everybody will have a good time.”

Behind the America’s Cup

Sharples will still be commodore in 2017, America’s Cup year, and says it’s “serendipity” for him that the competition will be in Bermuda. He has long-standing associations with the island, even keeping a J/80 there for racing, and visits as often as he can.

Obviously enthusiastic about the Squadron’s America’s Cup chances, he told me: “Our challenge, through our affiliated club – Royal Yacht Squadron Racing Ltd – with Ben Ainslie Racing as our team, is a tremendous opportunity for us to play our part in bringing the Cup back to Britain . . . We believe our member Sir Ben Ainslie has the best chance for a long time of winning the Cup. Our role, and mine as commodore, is to give Sir Ben all the support that we can.”

One of the cannon on the Platform

So the Squadron remains an enigma: a private members’ club still functioning with centuries-old traditions, yet a public-facing, dynamic organisation in the forefront of world racing. It has a reputation for being a bastion of high society, yet the members I know are not titled – one a surgeon, another in the arts.

July 2015 looks set to be a great celebration of this and all that’s unique about this 200-year-old club, which is changing with the times while not compromising its standards and its history.

The Bicentenary International Regatta

The Royal Yacht Squadron will be 200 years old on 1 June this year and in celebration the club has invited members of 25 clubs around the world for a week of racing from 25-31 July, in boats of all sizes from J/70 sportsboats to at least three of the mighty J Class classics .

A number of the bigger boats will arrive from Newport, USA, at the end of the Transatlantic Race 2015 , organised by the Royal Yacht Squadron in conjunction with the New York YC, the Royal Ocean Racing Club and the Storm Trysail Club as part of the celebrations.

The three J Class yachts confirmed to date are Lionheart , Ranger and Velsheda . Velsheda was built by Camper & Nicholsons in the 1930s and a couple of decades ago was a regular sight on the Solent as a day charter boat.

Ranger was an aristocrat of a boat, owned by Harold Vanderbilt and winner of 32 of the 34 races she ever sailed, successfully defending the America’s Cup in 1937. She was eventually scrapped and the new Ranger is a faithful replica.

Lionheart is a new J built to a similar set of plans to Ranger from the archives of designers Starling Burgess and Olin Stephens. She made her mark in J racing winning the Kings 100 Guineas Cup in Cowes in 2012. The appearance of the J Class at the Royal Yacht Squadron Bicentenary International Regatta will be a rare treat for Solent spectators.

The week of racing promises to be a lively set of events, including fleet racing under IRC and level rating plus team racing for younger sailors. Members of the 25 invited clubs who can’t get their own boats to Cowes will still be able to compete thanks to the entire fleet of Sunsail Farr 40s being made available for charter, offering closely matched racing.

The highlight of the week is likely to be the Race Around the Island. Ashore, the social programme features parties and gatherings at the Castle and other special venues, culminating in a Grand Party at Osborne House on 30 July.

This is an extract from a feature in Yachting World April 2014

• 1. Flying the white ensign
• 2. Bicentenary celebrations
• 3. Inside the Castle

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Luxury rules at the moscow yacht show.

by Maria Sapozhnikova

The windy Russian autumn weather might be a little bit tricky for sailing, but it doesn’t stop brave yachtsmen from all over the world from flocking to Russian capital in the beginning of September when the Moscow Yacht Show commences. The main Russian Yacht exhibition gathers professional and amateur yacht lovers together under the wing of The Royal Yacht Club.

This year it took place for a fourth time already. The exhibition is considered the principal event on the sporting and social calendar. The Moscow Yacht Show 2010 united in one area three of the largest Russian yachts distributors: Ultramarine, Nordmarine and Premium Yachts.

A wide range of yachts were on display for a week. An exhibition showcased yachts both from Russian manufacturers and world famous brands: Azimut, Princess, Ferretti, Pershing, Riviera, Doral, Linssen, etc.

It was a real feast for seafarers as visitors of the show had a unique chance not only to take a look at the newest superyachts before they hit the market, but also to evaluate their driving advantages during the test drive. The show provided an excellent opportunity for yacht enthusiasts to choose and buy a new boat for the next season.

The event started with the grandiose gala evening. It included grand dinner, the concert and professional awards ceremony for achievements in Russian yachting industry. The guests also enjoyed the annual regatta.

Special guest Paolo Vitelli, Azimut Benetti Group president, opened the evening.

Next year organizers assured guests they would bring more yachts, the scale of which will even make oligarch Roman Abramovich envious. Sounds very promising indeed.

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