Cowes’ origins as the most famous yachting resort in the world going back to the early 1800s.
It was then a rather shabby
port whose main business was shipbuilding.
In 1811, the Duke of Gloucester came to stay and as part of the rather limited entertainment on offer watched sailing matches between local fishermen.
The duke’s patronage led to amateur gentlemen running their own race and founding a club. The Prince Regent joined in 1817 and on his accession as George IV it was first rechristened the Royal Yacht Club, and then the Royal Yacht Squadron with its headquarters in one of Henry VIII’s castles.
Nowadays, Cowes Week has become the premier yachting event of the year and also a fixture in the aristocratic social calendar. Shipbuilding was for centuries the main industry of East Cowes, spanning ships for the Royal Navy, lifeboats, flying boats and seaplanes.
Many of the seaplanes took part in the Schneider Trophy races, which brought great excitement to the Solent in the interwar years.
Sir Donald Campbell’s Bluebird was built here, and the hovercraft had its origins in what is now the home of GKN Westland Aerospace. Westland’s factory doors were painted with a giant Union Jack to mark the Queen’s Jubilee in 1977 – a piece of patriotic paintwork that has been retained by popular demand.
Two museums in Cowes have a nautical theme. The Sir Max Aitken Museum in an old sail maker’s loft in West Cowes High Street houses Sir Max’s remarkable collection of nautical paintings, instruments and artefacts, while the Cowes Maritime Museum, located in Cowes Library, charts the island’s maritime history and has a collection of model racing yachts that includes the Uffa Fox pair Avenger and Coweslip. (Uffa Fox, perhaps the best known yachtsman of his day, is buried in the Church of St Mildred at Whippingham.).
If you are more interested in military history, the Military Museum can be reached just 2 miles south of Cowes, adjacent to the county showground on the Newport road.
Here are displayed tanks, armoured cars and guns in a former World War II barracks.
There are also displays of working vehicles and the opportunity to ride in a Saracen tank.
