The Little Britain Challenge Cup, the construction industry regatta now in it’s 16th year, was held off Cowes, from 11-14 September. The event attracted 212 entrants from every area of the business, including architects, builders, engineers, surveyors and lawyers. There were 56 new entrants, along with well known faces from the sailing world including Neal and Lisa McDonald and world yachtsman Harold Cudmore.

The Royal Yacht Squadron organised the racing, Thursday there was a practice race with nearly a third of the entries taking part. This was followed on the Friday morning with the first short race, for which the weather was sunny with a Force 2-3. However the afternoon race had to be abandoned due to the benign wind conditions, which meant that the competitors had to reluctantly relocate to the bar in the Cowes Yacht Haven marquee. For Saturday’s long race, the wind returned with blue skies and as always the racing was very competitive, but the true Corinthian spirit still managed to prevail.

New entrant The Stone & Ceramic Warehouse sailing in class 1 carried off the top yacht trophy, the Little Britain Challenge Cup.

The high point of the social calendar was the gala dinner on the Saturday night, when the largest sit down dinner seen on the island was held in the 2,400 sqm marquee. Cowes was treated to a world record ‘heads and tails’ game, which raised £13,140 in 15 minutes. Chris Mills then went on to auction 10 items and in so doing extracted a further £19,300 from the generous audience. The Little Britain Challenge Cup proves that it is possible to have fun and raise over a £100,000 for charity. The main beneficiaries will be the Cirdan and Jubilee Sailing Trusts, also local organisations such as the Island Youth Centre Water Activities and the Cowes Sea Cadets.