News - 2017

15:17 Monday 31 Jul 2017 Sue Pelling/LCWCharity Day booming

Busy times at the Andrew Simpson Foundation stand on The Parade – photo Tom Gruittt/LCW

The glorious weather at Lendy Cowes Week has really attracted the crowds today. The town is buzzing as 1000s of visitors weave their way through the High Street from Shepards Wharf to Cowes Parade and beyond.

Competitors are also enjoying a fantastic day on the water with plenty of wind to keep the racing exciting.

For Charity Day, conditions couldn’t be better either, with the Andrew Simpson Foundation (the event’s official charity) reporting record interest.

Storm Nuttall – former youth world champion gold medallist and the Charity’s Coordinator at Lendy Cowes Week says it has been full on today. One of the biggest attractions is the Discover Sailing feature where youngsters can try out sailing.

“We’ve been absolutely overwhelmed with interest and in fact today we’ve had to close booking because we are full up, and we already have a healthy amount of bookings for the rest of the week.”

The Discover Sailing sessions, which run at 1000, 1100, 1300, and 1400 every day, take place in three RS Venture keelboats, which means up to 15 people go out per session.

Nuttall continued: “The idea of Discover Sailing supported by Lendy is for youngsters to come along to our stand sign up for a slot and turn up at the appointed time and then go sailing. The children aged between 8-14 years old, get taken out by RIB to the moored boats and have 30-45 minutes having a potter round enjoying some fun sailing. It doesn’t cost anything but we do encourage a small donation for our charity. 

Gutter boat racing on the stand is also a big hit and is likely to be hugely popular at this evening’s Big Bash. This is a time trial style race between two cardboard Gutter boats. When the start gun goes, competitors need to blow with all their might in an effort to record the fastest time. The overall winner at the end of the Week wins a Sunsail holiday to Grenada. There are also spot prizes to win. Entry fee is by donation.

Alice and Milly Bending from Northampton who are on holiday with their family were keen to have a go and recorded a time of 12.28 seconds. Milly said: “It is such fun. We don’t actually sail but our dad owns a speed boat so we go out on that.”

Chatting about sailing and whether they feel Lendy Cowes Week has encouraged them to participate in future, Milly added: “We’ve been speaking about it and actually we think we would like to get into sailing because it sounds exciting and, from what we can see here at Cowes Week, it seems really good fun too.”

Alice added: “I think I would like sailing, although I was the one that capsized just now. It was really good fun and you never know what you may get involved in at LendyCowes Week.”