13/04/2026
The 1990s was a great decade for classic yacht racing in the Mediterranean regatta circuit, yachts in the 50ft range were particularly competitive. I was lucky enough to be part of the crew on ‘Solway Maid’ a 52ft Cutter skippered by Iain McAllister. Our adventures took us all the way from the Clyde to Monaco, Imperia to Mahon and lots in between.
As our familiarity grew with our fellow competing crews amongs them were the Bretagne sailors who were a tough and characterful bunch, getting to know Jerome Boyer our closest rival and right hand man of Frances great sailor Eric Tabarly on Pen Duick, was part of the course and my highlight of racing against them helming Solway Maid in a sparkling breeze close reach finish at the feeder race from Cannes to St Tropez where we got to within inches of Pen Duicks counter with the ocassional glance back from the great man himself both yachts at the absolute limit in terms of boat speed and trim, it was an unforgetable experience.
As our familiarity grew times were spent ashore in the many fine watering holes of St Tropez such as Café de Paris it was during these meetings that we hatched a plan to hold a ‘challenge fun race’ during the lay day of the Nioulargue regatta 1997 with great naivety we published a fun race programme and laid marks around the St Tropez coast with a prize of a purple shirt! Everyone had fun and our prizegiving was held onboard the beautiful Fife Gaff Ketch ‘Kentra’
Emboldened by the success of this ‘fun’ regatta and while aboard Ernst Klauses ‘Fulmar’ at a start in Monaco I looked around and there we were many Fife Yachts far from home in an albeit beautiful setting I turned around to Duncan Walker the man behind Fairlie restorations setting the benchmark for authentic classic Fife restorations ‘What do you think about the idea of a regatta on the Clyde’? He responded ‘you organize it and we will help get the boats. Jerome was aboard and agreed, Jerome quickly organized for me to sail with Eric Tabarly aboard the fabulous 15m class ‘Tuiga’ in a 2 day race to Imperia this was the opportunity to get ‘yachting royalty’ approval. Over a glass of Domain de toute vent and a Camemberg baguette Eric said ‘Oui’ Eric was a man of few words but when he did converse it was always some poinient or fun observation, what a great character, later in a visit to his home town of Benodet and birthday party he was to underline this quality when urged onto the stage of a large gathering the hall became silent in anticipation of a speech you could hear a pin drop whence with all his power and gusto a fantastic rendition of a French sailors song, He brought the house down.
These were the characters and setting stones for the first Fife Regatta in 1998 and since many more stories and gatherings have shaped the event. The yachts will return 4th to 12th June
