LIVING HISTORY

A NEW REGATTA FOR CLASSIC YACHTS AIMS TO RECREATE THE FAMOUS ERA OF THE BRITISH 'BIG CLASS'. DAN HOUSTON JOINS THE RICHARD MILLE CUP

For two weeks in mid-June it looked as if those evocative black and white photographs taken by Beken of Cowes had come alive and the past was racing again. But this time the scene was in glorious colour, as the Richard Mille Cup brought a magnificent collection of classic yachts to the English south coast. 

It was just like the days when King George V sailed his beloved Britannia: young, 20-strong crews hauling ropes on swept teak decks; towering spreads of washed-out buff sails; varnished spars glinting in the sun; and polished brass binnacles and ship’s bells.

Some things on these classic leviathans simply haven’t changed: the bronze oxidising to a deep venerable brown green, the teak weathering to a pleasant pale grey. The hulls often painted a broken white, with a cove line of gold leaf applied along their length accentuating the gorgeous sheer. The deep keels and heavy displacement that keep an easy motion at sea, a little like the suspension on an old American car. And a gathering of them together is still an arresting sight.

It all began in Falmouth on 10 June, where a small but glamorous fleet assembled of 11 yachts ranging in size from the 41ft 6in (12.5m) gaff cutter Cynthia, built in 1910 and recently restored by Peter Lucas in Devon, to the 185ft (56m) LOA three-masted schooners Adix and Atlantic, built in 1984 and 2010 respectively. After three days of competition in Falmouth Bay, the fleet raced the 65-mile passage to Dartmouth and then overnight, east again, to Cowes for three days of racing including a race round the Isle of Wight, before a final 100-mile offshore pursuit race to Le Havre.

A MAJESTIC SIGHT