East Cowes Castle way that even throughout the summer, the ice would not melt. The castle had a battery of eight guns, from which Royal Salutes were often fired, when the Royal Yacht was visiting Cowes. This exact copy of the original East Cowes Castle was built on Lough Cooter, County Galway in 1814. As described, East Cowes Castle was originally designed, built and owned by the famous architect John Nash, who was the protegé of the Prince Regent, who was to become King George IV. The circumstances surrounding its creation was that Charles Vereker, 2nd Viscount Gort happened to visit East Cowes
Cowes Week Cowes Week up to forty starts a day for classes of cruiser-racers, one designs and keelboats; up to a thousand boats and 8,000 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). The different classes of boats are split into either White Group (dayboats) and Black Group (larger boats with cabins). As well as the sailing activities, the week includes a large number of onshore events