[4] Cowes Week is held at the beginning of August, set after Glorious Goodwood in the social calendar, which in most years means from the first Saturday after the last Tuesday in July, until the following Friday.

[7] Typically Cowes Week up to forty starts a day for classes of cruiser-racers, one designs and keelboats; around 500 boats[2] and 2,500 competitors take part.

During this time the Solent, which is a busy commercial waterway, is filled with boats of all classes and is particularly colourful due to the spinnakers (the large rounded sail hoisted at the front of a yacht when running downwind).

Marquees are erected in the marinas serving food and drink,[8] and the crowds overflow from busy public houses and restaurants around the narrow high street – the town becomes a hive of activity into the early hours of each morning.

Until World War I, big cutters and raters were raced by gentlemen amateurs employing skippers and crew.

The Cup was subsequently raced for on the opening day of Cowes Week but, shortly after the turn of the 20th century, it was mysteriously lost.

Re-discovered in 1937 in a second-hand shop in Cardiff by a club member, Captain "Jonah" Jones, the Cup was bought back for the princely sum of £35.

In 1950, Sir Peter Scott suggested to King George VI that larger yachts should compete for a new trophy as it was felt that the America's Cup could not be restarted after the war.

King George was in favour and presented a trophy to the Royal Yachting Association, naming it The Britannia Cup.

Cup in that Miles Wyatt and four friends presented this overall trophy to encourage overseas yachts to race at Cowes.

French painter Raoul Dufy has depicted the races and Royal Yacht Squadron in several works of the late 1920s and early '30s, the most famous one of which is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.[16][17][18][19][20] J.M.W.

Turner also made a series of paintings, watercolours and pencil sketches of the regatta while visiting Cowes Castle in 1827.