Cowes Classics Week

Cowes Classics Week provides a natural home for one-off designs which fit the eligibility criteria.

Please review our notes on the eligibility of cruisers for Cowes Classics Week ››

A sample of past competitors is shown below.

Danegeld TJP7116 Danegeld

The yacht Danegeld was conceived in 1957 by David Cheverton for Bobby Lowein, a well known Cowes sailor with an enviable race record, and later Max Aitken’s sailing master. Lowein’s brief was for a pretty boat and Danegeld, with her long overhangs, was hailed by the yachting press as one of the “nicest and most shapely vessels produced in this country” and “something of a wonder boat”. Only 24ft on the water line, she was designed to the minimum dimensions for RORC Class 3. In the hands of a master sailor she was fast. In her first full season in 1959, from 22 starts she gained 21 podiums, including 15 first places. This included winning Round the Island Race and her class in the Fastnet.

With Max Aitken beckoning, Bobby Lowein sold Danegeld in 1964 to George Proctor of Tring. She was berthed at Shoreham for ten years and then sold to Malcolm Farquharson of Poole before she was acquired by Clifford Ling of Greenwich in 1979, and berthed in Hamble for eighteen years, voyaging to France, Spain and the Azores.

In 1997 she passed to Robert Veale the present owner and he began an extensive restoration to the racing condition for which Danegeld was famous.

Fifteen years on and Danegeld’s future is secured. Weight, in the shape of a heavy diesel engine and fuel tanks in the elegant counter with compensating ballast in the bow, has been removed. She is now back to her original waterline. Her sleek hull is as sound as ever and she has a fine new sail wardrobe from Kemp. Berthed in Gosport, she is now perfectly positioned to resume her former distinguished place in the Solent, and perhaps further afield, as a classic racing yacht.

She was a feature boat at the Southampton Boat Show in 2012, where David Cheverton and Robert Veale met up to admire her lines once again, and to launch the Classic Cruiser class at Cowes Classics Week.