Cowes Week after its new sponsor, Lendy - The Property Platform. The festival originates from the Prince Regent's interest in yachting which continued after he became George IV in 1820. The first race started at 09:30 on Thursday 10 August 1826 with the prize of a "Gold Cup of the value of £100" and was held under the flag of the Royal Yacht Club, which later became the Royal Yacht Squadron. Another race was held the next day for prize money only (£30 for first place, £20 for second). Until World War I, big cutters and raters were raced by gentlemen amateurs
Cowes Week winner on points. An historic event occurred in the 2012 Cowes Week when Mrs Gillian Smith became the very first female Principal Race Officer to oversee the racing in the 200-year history of the event. French painter Raoul Dufy has depicted the races and Royal Yacht Squadron in several works of the late 1920s and early '30s, the most famous one of which is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. J.M.W. Turner also made a series of paintings, watercolours and pencil sketches of the regatta while visiting Cowes Castle in 1827. Cowes Week Cowes Week (