Tuesday 10 August 2010

Cowes Week 2010

This has been a really busy summer for me and my blog is a bit behind but I promise to catch up soon. I had decided to let my photography take a back seat while I enjoyed the summer with my family, but a couple of weeks a go I got an email from Yachting World asking if I would cover 'Cowes Week' again and submit images for consideration for their website and magazine. Last year I had images published online everyday of Cowes Week, making the gallery cover shot twice and had a number of images published in the magazine.

I knew it was going to be difficult as I had both my girls that week. I had to plan very carefully, making sure that they would enjoy Cowes and I would get time to shoot some of the races. I planned my shoots around snack time, lunch time and a great new play park with a pirate ship, swings, slides etc.... The week was a great success and we all got to enjoy Cowes, the racing, the entertainment and a couple of evenings in the pub for tea.

Saturdays racing started with very close to shore racing with many yachts running aground and lots of bumps and scrapes with each other.


The weather on Sunday was lovely and it started with some great racing for the spectators along the parade and enjoying the beach.


I also managed to get in position for the Sonars in which a few friends were racing on a yacht called Discovery. They had won their first race on the Saturday and were in a very confident mood.


On Monday I had a great vantage point at Gurnard with great views east and west of the Solent. The two Americas Cup yachts, Jaguar Team Origin and BMW Oracle were out practicing and some of the bigger yachts came in quite close to shore as they headed west.





Tuesday saw me chase the Artemis challenge yachts to St Catherines Lighthouse and still get back to Cowes for the Extreme 40's.




On Wednesday the girls went to Grandmas so I was able to spend some serious time in Cowes and even got to take in a band on the parade.



Thursday was the Round the Island 1851 Cup so I decided to try and get the Americas Cup Yachts at St Catherines Lighthouse and the Needles Lighthouse.






On Friday everyone is looking forward to the evenings entertainment. Sadly the Red Arrows weren't able to do their display because of the weather but the Fireworks didn't disappoint.



You can see all the images used on Yachting World's website here.