In 2015 the Royal Yacht Squadron, founded in 1815, will achieve its bicentenary. The Club will mark the milestone with a calendar of celebrations for Members taking place throughout the year at the Castle, its historic home in Cowes, and in London and overseas.

The focus of the racing programme will be the RYS International Bicentennial Regatta which will take place in the Solent from the 25th – 31st July 2015. Held two weeks before the annual Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week regatta, the Club will be opening its doors to international friends. Invitations to participate have now gone out to clubs around the world.

The regatta will provisionally be open to IRC classes and an international one design fleet. There will also be match racing plus two-boat team racing in the Club’s J80s. The one design fleet will be an evenly matched class which will be sailed by a corinthian crew to include at least one under 25 year old.

“We will run a regatta that brings together as many clubs and friends who share our common interests and love of sailing as is possible,” comments Rear Commodore Yachting David Aisher. “We hope that they will leave at the end of the event with many happy memories and will have helped forge stronger ties between our clubs as a direct consequence of their participation.” He adds “This promises to be a very special occasion, so we urge those invited clubs to get in touch as soon as possible for further information, since space will unfortunately be limited.”

The regatta celebrations will follow on from the Transatlantic Race (www.transatlanticrace.org) which in 2015 is being run again by the New York Yacht Club, the Royal Yacht Squadron, the Royal Ocean Racing Club and the Storm Trysail Club. The timing is designed to allow boats to get from Newport RI to Cowes for the Bicentennial Regatta Week, which will be followed by Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week and the Rolex Fastnet Race.

At Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week, Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s race days, which are traditionally hosted by the RYS, will be a Bicentennial Regatta for Solent Classes with special prizes to mark the occasion.

Full details will be contained in the Notice of Race to be published next year. The 2015 Bicentennial Regatta pages will be launched on the RYS website www.rys.org.uk in due course, and further regatta details will be posted as and when available.