The Marblehead Trophy regatta is underway in Cowes, with 24 Dragon teams, representing their individual yacht clubs, completing three races on the opening day.

In a light easterly breeze, the fleet made its way across the Solent towards the Lee-on-the-Solent shore, where sunshine, sparkling water and a gradually building breeze provided a picturesque backdrop to a long day of racing.

There were one or two OCS boats across the three starts, but with the Vakaros RaceStart system in use, teams were quickly able to identify their position, return and get their races underway.

Tide played a major part throughout the day, with teams looking for every opportunity to make gains on the approaches to the windward marks. Getting too close to the shore came with its own risks, however, and a few Dragons found the bottom during the day.

GBR375 Blue Haze took the opening race win, USA325 claimed race two and GBR833 completed the day with victory in race three.

After three races, GBR402 leads the 24-boat fleet by just one point – remarkably, exactly the same position after the opening day of the 2025 edition of this unique trophy event.

View the overall results

A long day on the water concluded with a fantastic prizegiving at the Royal Yacht Britannia Trust’s Sailing Through Royal History exhibition at Commodores House, where the day’s race winners and top Corinthian teams were celebrated.

With little separating the leading boats, the scene is set for another closely fought day of Marblehead Trophy racing in Cowes.

The Marblehead Trophy was presented by the people of Marblehead in 1929 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the foundation of the town of Marblehead in 1629.  The Deed of Gift stipulates that any recognised yacht club may challenge by one yacht only.  The inaugural event was won by the Royal Swedish YC and it has been in Europe ever since and raced for in Dragons since 1952.  Bluebottle challenged on behalf of the Royal Yacht Squadron and won in St Tropez in 2025 which is the first time a British challenge has won in the event’s history.  She now seeks to defend against challenges from 24 yacht clubs from around the world including Hong Kong, Australia, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Venice plus two notable challenges from clubs seeking to take the trophy back to the US.  The stage is set for what is in effect an historic fleet-race equivalent of the America’s Cup.

Images: Paul Wyeth Photography