Cowes Yacht Club Closes 30-Year Around French Island Catamaran Challenge

Thirty years after the Isle of Wight Hotel first sponsored a circumnavigation of French Island and handed the winner a trophy alongside samples of the pub's wares, Cowes Yacht Club brought the curtain down on its Australian Air Safaris Around French Island Catamaran Challenge on March 21, 2026 — at least for now.

More than 50 of Australia's top catamaran sailors gathered at the Phillip Island club for the 30th running of the Australian Sailing national race, competing for $10,000 in prize money and the prestigious Isle of Wight Trophy. The event is the final edition for now, with Cowes Yacht Club taking a break from hosting the major event after three decades.

The club itself is small. Commodore Andrew Janson put it plainly: "Cowes is a small club with under 250 members, yet we're able to run this race purely because of the help of the entire community. It wouldn't be possible without our amazing sponsors."

That community effort was visible from early Saturday morning. Roads around the club were closed to through traffic, and club volunteers organised trailer parking spaces for a fleet that far outnumbered the limited spaces at the bottom of the hill beside the clubhouse. The race village, located 400 metres from Cowes' main street, opened at 10am with a free sausage sizzle, two-for-one coffee courtesy of Red Rocks Golf Course, and giveaways from Ocean Reach Brewing, Red Rocks Golf Course, and Island Surfboards. Boats hit the start line at 11am, with a resail scheduled for March 22 if conditions required it.

The course itself offered no guarantees of an easy passage. Cowes Yacht Club's own race history describes French Island's waters bluntly: "The race exposes boats and crews to many and varied weather conditions with anything possible, from a drifter to heavy weather with consequent stormy wind and water conditions. Combine this with strong multi directional tides and current, variable water depths and exotic land/sea/wind conditions around French Island and within Westernport Bay means all boats and crews will be tested to the max."

The event's character shifted in 2022, according to the club's race history, which notes that prior to that year it was run as a fun event for local catamaran sailors to circumnavigate French Island in company and safety, adding simply: "In 2022 this all changed." The race is now classified as an Australian Sailing national event, contested across three divisions.

The Isle of Wight Trophy, which outlasted its original hotel sponsor by decades, remains the race's symbolic centrepiece. The club's history notes that "sailors are very keen to add their name alongside other French Island legends," and the 2026 engraving will mark the last for this chapter of the event's life. Title sponsor Australian Air Safaris carried the event name into its 30th year, with Bendigo Bank, The Coast Real Estate, Red Rocks Golf Course, Ocean Reach Brewing, and Island Surfboards among the supporters who made the milestone edition possible.