Fowey Royal Sailing Regatta 2025
by Andrew Dellow 15 Sep 18:47 UTC
16-23 August 2025
This year's regatta held 16-23 August was full of variety and saw great competition in all the classes.
Held almost every year since 1819, it is the highlight of the year in Fowey and is held in conjunction with the town carnival featuring a good number of family events and what is probably the largest classic car show in Cornwall.
Passage Races
Saturday was the start of the regatta sailing races with a cruiser race from Plymouth to Fowey as part of the passage race series. First away were the sail training fleet- a class introduced to regatta last year to encourage youth training vessels to give children a taste of yacht racing. These were followed by the IRC, YTC and YTC white sail fleets. With a strong wind forecast the race officer wisely chose a direct course to Fowey. The wind settled into a mainly mid 20's easterly giving a long downwind leg until the river entrance at Fowey after which came the challenge of getting up to the line in lighter and more variable breeze.
'Bright Star of Revelation' took the victory in the sail training class, Simon Tom's 'Zephyr' (Sunfast 3300) blitzed the course in 2 hour 20 minutes to win IRC, Andrew Own's 'Pepe' (Hanse 370e) won YTC and Joe Gibbon's 'Blue Mischief' (Maxi 1000) won YTC white sail division.
The long anticipated race from Fowey to Flushing on Sunday is the sailing highlight for many in Fowey - it is the only race many local boats do in the season - and the welcome at Flushing Sailing Club is always superb. This year there were 40 boats entered. However, the weather was not co-operating with very high winds and big seas forecast and with deep regret the race committee abandoned the race on the morning of the race. This has not happened in living memory so was a huge disappointment.
With the race to Flushing cancelled so was the return leg on Monday and so in it's place the race committee put on an impromptu pursuit race around St Austell Bay which whilst not a substitute for the passage race was nonetheless enjoyed by those who opted to take part. Class winners were Elliot Toms 'Jaydreamer' (J109) in IRC, Paddy Scullion 'Juliette' (J24) in YTC, Alan Harris 'Koala' (Sigma 41) in YTC white sail and Peter Adams 'Bright Star of Revelation' in the sail training class.
Passage races prizes were kindly sponsored by Johns of Fowey who donated bottles of rum and wine.
Falmouth Working Boats
The biggest disappointment of the passage race from Falmouth being cancelled was that the Falmouth Working Boats were not able to make the trip up. These boats make a fantastic spectacle in the river and their harbour race on Thursday is watched on the town quay by many spectators. Despite attempts to juggle racing schedules the fleet were unable to make it. Fowey looks forward to welcoming the fleet back in 2026.
Inshore Fleets
Tuesday to Friday is when the inshore fleet racing takes place. This year there were 17 Troys, 30 Fowey Rivers, 10 C class dinghies (fast), 7 J class dinghies (mainly Lasers) and 8 K class dinghies (mainly Fowey Gallants SC training boats)- giving a combined dinghy fleet of 25.
The Troys were fiercely competitive with the winner decided on countback. Andy Matthews took the honours in his first attempt at racing a Troy in regatta but he is no stranger to winning having won the Fowey River Class a number of times previously. Second was Alan Harris and third Marcus Lewis.
Fowey Rivers are also a highly competitive fleet and this year was no exception and with their coloured sails add a great spectacle to the river. In the end Peter Hadley in 'Four Brothers' won with a comfortable margin winning three of the seven races. Philip Henson in 'Zethar' took second but third place was only decided after the final race where one of three boats could have taken the final podium spot. This ultimately went to Duncan McInernay in 'Shearwater'.
C class (fast) dinghies were dominated by RS boats of various types. The winner was again decided on countback With James Dowrick taking the top step in his RS200 'Jolly Roger'. In second place was Charlie Morgan's beautiful vintage merlin rocket 'Fan Tan'. Third place was closely fought with four boats within two points but in the end Tom Laidlar won through in his RS Vareo.
J class (medium) dinghies was also closely contested by two boats. These two in fact were so close that they shared first place on one race with equal corrected times. Class winner was Peter May in a Laser 7 followed by Rory Armstrong in a Laser 6. Third was Dan Cocks in another Laser 6.
The K class (slow) saw a totally convincing performance by Zoe Green in her Optimist winning every race. Second went to Molly Tindall in one of the Fowey Gallants Fevas and third was Willow Richards in another Feva. Many of the K class was made up of Fowey Gallants SC instructors using club boats and crewed by current juniors who are going through their RYA training programme and some boats were helmed and crewed by students. Great to see and encouraging for the future.
The last race of the inshore fleet regatta is the Junior race. Held in the harbour and split into three fleets to account for experience and age this is a great sight and well supported by a vocal crowd on the RFYC terrace. A good breeze and a strong flood tide made for testing conditions. Those who worked out a route through the moorings out of the main stream did well and went on to post good results. The requirements for this race are that helms must be under 18 on the day of the race. The gold fleet for the most experienced sailors was won by Oscar Allbut in his Aero 7 followed by Zoe Green in her optimist and Henry Richards in a Laser 4.7. The silver fleet was won by Barney and Frank in a Feva. The bronze fleet was won by Molly and Stan in a Fusion.
Cruiser Regatta Races
The three fleets all provided close racing with two of them being decided on countback.
The IRC fleet saw Annie Nick-Haigh in 'Firefox' (Laser 28) and Eliot Toms in 'Jaydreamer' (J109) trade places with both counting two firsts and two seconds. 'Firefox' took the series by winning the last race. Third place went to Robert Fletcher in 'I say ding dong' (Beneteau 34.7).
YTC - as seen already with so many other fleets this year - also was decided on countback! Richard Butterworth 'Tumbarumba' (MG335) and David Ayling 'Aerial' (Dehler 34 JV) traded a load of first and second places with Richard taking the winning spot. Third place was Malcolm Mitchell 'Gazelle' (Grand Soleil 343).
YTC White Sail fleet whilst not decided on countback was nonetheless decided on the last race. Colin Gibbon 'Inseinity' (Modern Gaffer) and Joan Whyte 'Grey Knott' (Hanse 315) were both counting two firsts setting up a last race winner takes all. In the event 'Inseinity' was trailing very closely to 'Grey Knott' at the last windward mark with the final wing mark to go before the finish. At this point the wind shifted hugely turning the last legs into a beat causing 'Grey Knott' to accidentally miss a mark in the confusion. Third place in the class went to another local boat Bob Skinner 'Sand Dollar (Scan Yacht 391).
The last race of the week for cruisers is Tribute Day. This takes the form of a single race of about 2-3 hours finishing on the yacht club line. The class winners were IRC - Eliot Toms 'Jaydreamer (J109), YTC Richard Butterworth 'Tumbarumba' (MG335) and YTC white sail Joan Whyte 'Grey Knott' (Hanse 315).
Full results can be found here.
The regatta organisers would like to thank our main sponsors who are St Austell Brewery, Imerys, The Property Shop Fowey and Johns of Fowey. Race Marks are sponsored through the year by many local businesses for which thanks are also given.
Look forward to seeing everyone next year, August 15-22 2026!