Historic Sweep: How the Cape 31 Beat the Big Boats at Cowes Week 2025

Beating IRC Class 1 and 2 to the Britannia Cup

The standout result came on the Wednesday of race week, in the contest for the Britannia Cup — a trophy presented in 1951 by King George VI and traditionally reserved for the largest boats at the regatta. Sandy Askew's Cape 31 Flying Jenny beat 23 of the highest-rated IRC yachts in the fleet, including boats from IRC Classes 1 and 2, to take the win. It's a result with a wider significance too: Flying Jenny's name now goes up on the wall of the Royal Yacht Squadron, and Askew may be the first female owner-driver to achieve that.

A Clean Sweep of the Historic Trophies

The Britannia Cup win came on the back of an equally strong result earlier in the week for the Queen's Cup, where a Cape 31 finished ahead of seven other boats from the class. Together with a win in the New York Yacht Club Challenge Cup — presented in 1951 to mark the 100th anniversary of the America's Cup, and won this year by Julian Metherill's Bullitt, with six more Cape 31s finishing ahead of the first non-Cape boat, the TP52 Gladiator — that gave the class a clean sweep of all three of Cowes Week's largest standalone trophies.

And a One-Design and IRC Class Win, Too

Beyond the headline trophies, the Cape 31 fleet ran its own competitive one-design mini-series over the course of the week, while also topping the leaderboard in its dedicated Cowes Week IRC class. Combined with the trophy sweep, that gives the class four distinct wins from a single regatta — a one-design series win, an IRC class win, and both of the week's two qualifying "big boat" trophies feeding into the overall Britannia Cup victory.

Why It Matters

For a class built around affordability, easy trailering, and shipping-container logistics, beating dedicated grand-prix IRC campaigns — including a TP52 — at one of sailing's oldest and most prestigious regattas is a significant marker of how far the Cape 31 has come since its first boat was built in Cape Town in 2017. It's also a strong signal for anyone weighing up the class: a Cape 31 isn't just competitive against sister boats in one-design racing, but can credibly race — and win — against boats several classes above it on handicap.

Reporting by Mills Design. Racing Yachts is the Official Global Agent for the Cape 31. View current Cape 31 listings →