The offshore races from Cowes since 1961 have been captured by some of the best photographers.
We asked Chris Davies who has shot the event from a helicopter, on a boat and from various coastal locations to give us his favourite shot:
Bizarrely, it wasn’t a racing shot, it’s of Vee Ganjavian and Gareth Williams after their 2012 Cowes Torquay Cowes win.
This was a shot that I had tried several times to get at previous CTC weekends.
The only problem was that the awards were only handed out in the evening by which time you had no chance of including the background to show you were at the RYS.
I then worked out that if I convinced the winning crew to keep their race overalls on and walk them up to the RYS the only issue would then be getting them past security!
One year when Davies was hanging out of an Augusta 109, a photographer was there to capture the moment.
That photographer was Graham Stevens, a man that has taken more shots of the event than anyone else – His work can be viewed here.
Tim Tapping who lives in Torquay has been shooting the event for many years, his shot of Drew Langdon in Silverline (above) last year shows how rough the race can be.
And some years earlier, Rob Clifford caught Langdon (below) battling through extreme conditions.
His pictures are impressive, and if Davies had an issue taking the Royal Yacht Squadron shot, consider Clifford abseiling down a sheer drop to get his!
Malc Attrill celebrates his tenth anniversary of shooting the greatest offshore race in the world this weekend and his aerial image of Gary Aldington in Vintage Torque is one of the best in his decade of work.
If you have photographed the offshore races from Cowes since 1961 and want your shot to be included in this article, please contact Steve Willis, a man that hasn’t taken a snap, but it always happy to share others that have.
