Congratulations to Russell Mead and Z80, Shearwater 2 for winning Cowes Week, the full results can be found here
Cowes Week is the highlight of the sailing year for our Class, and this year’s event was particularly special as it marked our 90th anniversary, with Cowes celebrating the occasion through several special tributes:
- A feature article was published in the official Cowes Week programme, which you can read through the link below.
- The Victory Class was featured on the cover of the Sis.
- Cowes Week produced an official video celebrating the Class, including interviews with Matt and MC, along with stunning aerial footage of our races. Watch the video here
- On Friday, our start was signaled by the firing of a large RYS cannon!
Sailing Today - Yachts and Yachting also published an article about the Class in their July 2024 magazine
Victory Class celebrates 90 years
Celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2024, the Victory Class is a Cowes Week classic having taken part in the regatta as early as 1938.
The earliest of these sturdy, black-hulled, 21ft clinker dayboats trace their pedigree back to the gaff-rigged Bembridge one-designs, penned by eminent Solent designer Alfred Westmacott (also X One-Design, Mermaid and Sunbeam) and later modified by Sydney Graham – their shallow draft, speed and ease of handling under an updated Bermudan rig ensured a swift rise in popularity as the boat was readily adopted for club racing in and around Portsmouth Harbour. A spinnaker was added, along with the ‘Z’ insignia on the mainsail, and the class forged ahead as a strict one-design. The fleet numbered 29 boats by 1939, many sailed by naval officers, resulting in a number of boats being shipped to Gibraltar; a fleet still exists there today.
By the 50th anniversary in 1984, there were 32 boats racing for the celebrations in Cowes.
90 years later, and the Victory class has maintained that competitive reputation (a busy calendar sees around 90 races run from Portsmouth in the summer months) and the Class has had no fewer than seven different winners in the last eight Cowes Weeks!
Celebrations for the 90th are set to be memorable, with a BBQ planned on the Monday night in Cowes to celebrate the Westmacott Trophy, followed by a special Class dinner on the Thursday evening.
Even as it celebrates its many years of successful racing, the Victory class is also embracing its future. Since the launch in 2007 of a GRP Victory, developed by the Class association and built by David Heritage Yachting, numbers racing have shown an upwards trend, with several new boats bolstering this very active and much-loved fleet.