Plymouth University yachting team sets course for Cowes Week

A Plymouth University yachting team has set sail for Cowes in a bid to take on all-comers in the world-famous regatta, starting this week.

Aboard their 30-foot IRC3 craft, five of the eight-man team left Sutton Harbour in the early hours of Wednesday heading to the Isle of Wight. There they will take part in eight days of intense competition, racing against professional crews from around the globe.

The team – students Andrew Sinclair, Sandy MacPherson, and Eleni Morus, Plymouth graduates Daniel Wray and Chris Pope, and sailors Harry Cottenham and Aaron Cooper – are being skippered by Navigation and Marine Science student Marcel Herrera.

Marcel said: “Cowes Week is the largest sailing regatta of its kind in the world, so this is a hugely exciting opportunity for us to compete against world-class competition.

“Plymouth will be one of the only, if not the only, university team in the event, so we’re looking forward to representing our institution and the City of Plymouth.”

The regatta at Cowes dates back to 1826 and now attracts around 8,500 competitors, from Olympic athletes and world champions to Sunday sailors, with crowds topping 100,000.

Marcel and the team will be racing up to six times per day in the IRC3 class, which contains the third largest craft in the competition of between 30-45 feet. The races themselves will feature up to 40 vessels on the water at one time.

It is the second major competition for Marcel and his crew this year after they competed in the Sailing Arabia Tour, the prestigious race from Bahrain to Oman in the Middle East.

Marcel added: “We know that there are at least 10 full-time, professional crews in our class – but we’ve shown in the past that we can compete with them. So we’re setting our sights on finishing in the top five, and being ranked as one of the top three young teams.”