Cowes Week was first established over 185 years ago in 1826, and during its evolution has finely tuned its operations and working relationships with the local harbour authorities to ensure a safe event within the busy shipping channel in the Eastern and Central Solent.


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Cowes Week Limited is committed to ensuring a safe regatta and will continue to work alongside competitors and the harbour authorities to achieve this.  While incidents involving commercial vessels are very rare, they can happen. When they do, lessons must be learnt to safeguard against a repeat.

On the August 6, 2011, the first day of Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week, a collision took place between a Class 4 racing yacht and an inbound, large tanker. This was the first incident of its type at the regatta in at least 15 years and thankfully no-one was seriously injured.

Elite keelboats close ot shipping Cowes Week 2011

Elite keelboats getting a bit too close to shipping during the 2011 Aberdeen Asset management Cowes Week- photo Rick Tomlinson



As organisers of Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week, CWL has been assisting ABP with their investigations into this collision over recent months and ABP’s report into the incident will be published in the forthcoming months. In the meantime, a safety film has been co-sponsored by Associated British Ports (ABP), Red Funnel Ferries, Cowes Harbour Commission and CWL to assist safe sailing at one of the world’s largest regattas. This year’s Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week takes place from August 11-18.