The Round the Island Race 1959: the schooner Seabill ghosts over the start line on a glorious calm summer’s day (photo by Beken of Cowes)
The Round the Island Race 80th Anniversary Exhibition 1971: Sir Max Aitken’s smartly dressed crew on his successful Sparkman & Stephens designed IOR racer Roundabout. Roundabout had won the Gold Roman Bowl five years earlier (photo by Beken of Cowes)
The Round the Island in 80 Years Exhibition of photos from the race’s 80-year history had its officially launch at sponsor’s JP Morgan’s premises in London on Tuesday.
Featured sailing photographers include Frank and Keith Beken, Alistair Black and Eileen Ramsay who captured the race from the 1930s through to the 1960s up to the more recent work of Ken Beken, Peter Mumford, Rick Tomlinson, Thierry Martinez, Hamo Thornycroft, Paul Wyeth, Patrick Eden, Mark Lloyd, Cristel Clear and onEdition.
A recent discovery is the Kirk of Cowes archive: William Umpleby Kirk lived at Cowes on the Isle of Wight from 1870–1928, and captured an image of Queen Victoria’s yacht, which earned him a Royal Patronage. After his death, his son Edgar captured images of the race in the 1930s.
The exhibition will be at the Isle of Wight’s the Quay Arts Gallery (14-19 June) and the Race Village, Cowes Yacht Haven (24-26 June) during the race weekend. Exhibition images are available for purchase, with proceeds being donated to the official race charity, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust.
For more information and a very nice downloadable catalogue, click here.
