46th Cannes Royal Regatta Preview

Cannes Royal Regatta © Jehan Lerin

After three dream editions in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and "champagne sailing" as the Anglo-Saxons say, the 46th Royal Regatta of Cannes promises to be under the best auspices again this year. The number of entries continues to grow day by day for the world's most important classic yacht regatta.

Sailing enthusiasts have long been ticking off the year 2024, one of the busiest and most exciting in decades: the Olympic Games at the end of July in Marseille, the America's Cup qualifiers at the end of August in Barcelona, the Royal Regattas at the end of September in Cannes, and finally the start of the 10th Vendée Globe at the beginning of November in Les Sables d'Olonne...

The Yacht Club de Cannes, which is organising the 46th edition of the "Royales" as sailors like to note on their agenda at the beginning of the season, "knows the music", and is not in its infancy. Less than a century ago, Prince Henrik of Denmark, King George V, and the Prince of Wales, son of Queen Victoria and future Edward VII, aspired to come to Cannes regularly, enjoy the off-season, and have a good time racing. King Christian X even celebrated his wedding on the Croisette. A good sailor and a fine helmsman on his 6 Metre International Rule, he even took the liberty of proposing to organise a major annual regatta in the bay. The municipality, the Société des Régates de Cannes and the International Yacht Club, which would later become the Yacht Club de Cannes, asked His Highness for permission to name this event "Régates Royales de Cannes". The yes is frank and massive! The year is 1929. This is how, from now on, in addition to the greats of this world, all the yachting intelligentsia and the most brilliant naval architects of the moment, flock to Cannes for a week of fierce competition in addition to a few evenings with great pomp on the heights of the city. For nearly a century, the Régates Royales de Cannes have always attracted as many aesthetes and epicureans of classic sailing on the most beautiful monohulls in the world.

The lake is unique, with a bay protected from strong westerly winds by Cap Roux and from those coming from the east by Cap d'Antibes. Of course, the "dirty" character of the Mediterranean is not overused, and it happens that a Mistral or South-Easterly wind under the influence of a depression over the Gulf of Genoa, invites itself, transforming the playing field into fields of bumps. It also happens that La Grande Bleue ends up like a lake, the water just wrinkled by a slight zephyr... For the past few years, the planets have been aligning with exceptional weather and thermal breezes that would make any racer dream.

In Cannes, many prestigious sailboats such as the "Big Boats" Mariska or Hallowe'en were designed by the legendary Scotsman William Fife III, then built at Fairlie on the Clyde River. It's a tradition, there are also the sublime P Class American ships, the Dragon, 9-metre keelboats designed by Johan Anker in 1929, as nicknamed "the sailboat of Kings" and which will compete in one of the most important regattas of the international season, just like the 5.5 MJI also led by former Olympic sailors during this French Open. What can we also say about the famous 12 MJIs that competed in the America's Cup in Newport (United States) and Fremantle (Australia) between 1958 and 1987, and magnificently maintained, coming back to Cannes for scrapping, after having been celebrated in Barcelona as a prologue to the 37th edition on extraordinary machines and in tune with the times, looking more like Formula 1 and planes than sailboats.

According to the motto, "you don't change a winning team" between YCC staff and volunteers, in addition to the loyal support of loyal partners and the municipality.

The president of the Yacht Club de Cannes, Jean-François Cutugno, explains: "This year, the Royal Regattas are doubled, bearing in mind that there will be two sites: the old port as usual for the classics, and the Yacht Club de Cannes points to the Croisette for the metric races (Dragon and 5.5 MJI) and which was completely renovated at the beginning of the year. I'm all the more satisfied that the cream of traditional yachting will be in Cannes despite the America's Cup in Barcelona at the same time. And after the Royales, we will host the European Championships in Finn, to end an extraordinary season where our young sailors from the club have shone both nationally and internationally!

The Details:

• Dates: September 18-24, 2022
• Categories: 6 MJI, 12 MJI, Big Boats, Smeralda, Dragon, Tofinou, 5.5M JI, Gaff Epoch < 15 M, Gaff Epoch > 15 M, Marconi Epoch < 15 M, Marconi Epoch > 15 M, Classic Marconi < 15 M (Ton Cup Classic), Classic Marconi > 15 M.