Famous Isle of Wight Sailing Connections

The Isle of Wight is one of sailing’s top destinations, with events such as the Round-the-Island Race and the Cowes Week regattas making it one of the real “been there, done that” places for the world’s top yachties to tick off.

Although Cowes is the hub of the sport on the Island and has previously been home to the America’s Cup and Admirals Cup, there are popular yacht clubs dotted around the coastline.

With this big sailing community comes its own heritage, with some of the sport’s top names choosing to live on the Island.

From, the late Duke of Edinburgh to The Princess Royal and King Charles as a young man, Cowes Week was often a sailing playground for the Royal family and even now the Princess Royal keeps a close eye on the town through her patronage of sail training charity the UKSA.  

Here we explore the yachting “royalty” who make the Isle of Wight their home and look at some of the sporting heritage to be found here.

Dame Ellen MacArthur

When she broke the record for the fastest single-handed circumnavigation of the globe in 2005, Dame Ellen became a national hero.

Although born in Derbyshire, she has made the Isle of Wight her home and has two charities based here – The Ellen MacArthur Foundation which promotes the circular, sustainable economy; and the Ellen MacArthur Trust, which puts children and young people living with cancer onto yachts for amazing experiences.

Sir Ben Ainslie

If Dame Ellen is the number one woman in British yachting, then Sir Ben Ainslie is probably the best known man.

The man who is now the driving force behind Britain’s America’s Cup (The F1 of world yachting) became a household name for his performances in the Olympic team, taking one silver and four gold medals at five consecutive Games between 1996 and 2012 in the Laser and Finn classes.

Although the America’s Cup team HQ is over the water in Portsmouth. Sir Ben and his wife, the well-known former Sky Sports presenter Georgie Thompson, live on the Isle of Wight.

Shirley Robertson OBE

And if that is not enough sailing stars, double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson has made her home in Cowes, where she can still be found occasionally competing in local club racing.

Shirley won her first Olympic Gold, in a three-woman team in Sydney in 2000, then repeated the feat at the Athens games four years later. She was named World Female Sailor of the Year in 2000 and has commentated for the BBC and other channels on yachting events in recent years.

Jo Richards

While he might not be as well known as the three people mentioned above, Jo was the trailblazer for Isle of Wight Olympic sailing success when he won bronze at the 1984 games in Los Angeles in the Flying Dutchman class alongside Peter Allam. Jo still lives in the Cowes area.

Seb Clover

In 2003, Seb became the youngest solo yachtsman to sail across the Atlantic, after training with his father since he was 12 years old. The Island-based boy went head to head in a race against his sailing instructor father. Although his father beat him to the finish, Seb made his way into the record books for completing the 27,000-mile race at the age of 15.

Uffa Fox CBE

One of the most fascinating characters in yachting was Uffa Fox, a sailor and boat designer born in East Cowes in 1898. The work of this down-to-earth man, whose designs included a lifeboat designed to be dropped from an aeroplane and the still popular Flying Fifteen dinghy, can be celebrated at the Classic Boat Museum’s Boatshed in East Cowes and its sister site The Gallery, also in East Cowes.